LB 



State of South Carolina 

Department of Education 

HIGH SCHOOL 
MANUAL 

'Revised and Rewritten 

By W. H. HAND 

Professor of Secondary Education 

in the University of South 

Carolina and 

High School Inspector 




ISSUED BY 

J. E. SWEARINGEN 
State Superintendent of Education 





Book , b d /j 3 4 



t T 



High School Manual 
for Teachers 



Revised and Rewritten 

By WILLIAM H. HAND 

Professor of Secondary Education 
University of South Carolina 

and 

High School Inspector 

of South Carolina T] t p"^ o^ c c) ujt xl\> » n 



918 




I9I9 

The State Company, Printefs 
Columbia, S. C. 




n: •f D. 

FEB 5 1220 



CONTENTS 



"O 



gThe High School as an Institution 5 

f Educational Values 7 

Progi'ams of Study 9 

Programs. Curriculums and Courses 13 

Studies Grouped by Years 15 

Curriculums 16 

Suggestions as to Programs 20 

The One-Teacher High School 22 

The High School Principal 23 

The High School Teacher 27 

The High School Pupil 30 

Getting Pupils to Study 33 

The High School Recitation 39 

Miscellaneous Suggestions 42 

English 48 

Spelling 51 

Reading .' 53 

Grammar 55 

Suggestions 59 

Conii^osition 02 

Literature 67 

Latin 72 

Beginner's Latin 70 

Reading and Translating Latin 78 

Following the Beginner's Book 81 

Latin Composition 82 

INIodem Languages 82 

History . . . ^ 86 

The Course in History 94 

Civics 95 

Mathematics 96 

Arithmetic 98 

Suggestions 100 

Algel)ra" 102 

Suggestions 103 

Plane Geometry 104 

Suggestions 105 

Natural Science 106 

Suggestions 110 

Agriculture 113 

Course in Agriculture 115 

A Concluding Word 115 



INTRODUCTION 



In 1911 I Avas instructed by the State Board of Education to 
prepare a High School Manual for the teachers of the State. 
It was kindly received by the high school teachers of the State, 
and several hundred copies were asked for by teachers and school 
officers outside the State. The supply was exhausted nearly two 
years ago. The State Board authorized the JVIanual to be re- 
vised and rewritten. The purpose, the plan, and the size of the 
first edition have been kept in mind in the preparation of the 
second edition. Some of the material of the former edition 
has been retained without change. Only a few of the best books 
for teachers have been recommended. Every teacher should have 
a few books bearing directly upon the teaching of the sub- 
jects he teaches, but I have found that many teachers neither own 
nor read such books. The unA'arnished fact is, the average high 
school teacher does not remain in the Avork long enough to impel 
him to buA' books on teaching. If teachers read more books on 
the teaching of their chosen subjects, many of the suggestions 
offered in this Manual Avould have been omitted. 

The cooperation, the suggestions, and the fellowship of the 
high school principals and teachers throughout the State have 
made my own Avork one of pleasure. Some of my strongest 
convictions are largely due to the experience and the counsel of 
my felloAv-Avorkers.. I take this opportunity to express my 
ii-ratitude to them all. W. H. HAND. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS AN INSTITUTION 



"The secondary st-hool has been established longer, in its pro- 
cedure, organization, curriculum, and method, than either 
elementary school or university."- — Monroe. 

"The past twenty years have seen an unparalleled growth in 
the interest in secondary education Attendance in sec- 
ondary schools has been growing more than four times as fast 
as the population. This rapid increase in attendance is a marked 
testimonial to our belief in secondary education." — Stout. 

"The secondaiT school was originally designed for the child- 
ren of the richer and more cultured families in the community. 

There are but few parents now who do not have the 

ambition and the ability to give their brightest children one or 
more years of high school education." — Snedden. 

"The changes which ought to be made immediately in the pro- 
grams of American secondary schools, in order to correct the 
glaring deficiencies of the present programs, are chiefly the in- 
troduction of more hand, ear, and eye work." — Eliot. 

"The high school is a democratic institution where democ- 
racy is practiced and nurtured for the elevation and strengthen- 
ing of the larger democracy of which the high school is an 
integral part." — Pearson . 

The secondary school is perhaps the most important link in 
our American educational system. It is at once the inspiration 
of the elementary school, the support of all institutions above it. 
and the chief agency in the preparation of the masses of the 
]ieople for intelligent citizenship, industrial efficiency, and social 
enjoyment. The elementary school has neither the time nor the 
opportunity to teach more than the mere tools of an education, 
and three-fourths of its pupils never get beyond it. Of those 
who enter the high school barely 15 per cent, ever reach college. 
That is to say, the college touches fewer than 4 per cent, of 
American citizens, exclusive of those who never go to school 
and are generally illiterate. The opportunities of the high 
school are almost boundless; its re-sponsibilit}^ has not yet been 
appraised. 

In one of the quotations above, Mr. Snedden has pointed out 
that the high school originally existed for the children of a 



6 

particular class of people comparatively small in mimber, but 
it now draws its patronage from practically all classes of people. 
It is easy to understand how the high school came to be looked 
upon as a college preparatory school. As late as 1893, when the 
somewhat famous Report of the Committee of Ten was made, 
perhaps a majority of the people were willing to accept the 
declaration that Avhat Avas a good preparation for college was 
a good preparation for life. Later the accuracy and sufficiency 
of that declaration have been challenged. College requirements 
and college courses have been subjected to tests which have re- 
sulted in radical changes and readjustments in both. Therefore, 
the high school has come to be regarded in a new light. Few 
thoughtful people seriously hold that the high school is primarily 
a college preparatory school. Most college presidents and col- 
lege professors now openly assert that the public high school is 
only incidentally a college preparatory school. Broadly speak- 
ing, there is but one type of college whose attitude toward the 
function of the high school remains unchanged. The small 
college of very limited resources, small faculty, and unable to 
maintain more than one or two courses, finds it difficult to re- 
adjust itself to the modern notion of a high school. It has so 
long been accustomed to having its pupils pursue courses in the 
high school leading directly to its freshman class, that it shrinks 
from the idea of considering any readjustment of its own course 
or courses. 

Strange as it may seem, teachers below college giiide were 
among or are among, the last to admit that the high school is 
not primarily a college preparatory^ school. And stranger still, 
the most belated teachers to accept the modern notion are those 
teaching in very small high schools and in country schools in no 
real sense high schools. In these two classes of schools it is no 
uncomjn;on thing to find teachers subordinating everything else 
to the preparation of one or two pupils for some particular 
college. They seem to think that their reputation, if not their 
destiny, depends on how well they can prepare an insignifi- 
cantly fcAV pupils for some college. Usually the alumni, or the 
alumnae, of the small college of the type above mentioned are 
most given to turning their chief attention to fitting a handful 
of boys or girls for college, regardless of the interests of their 
other pupils. 



A high school principal should never forget, nor should he 
peiTnit his teachers to forget, that the public high school is sup- 
ported by the taxes of all the people, that the children of all the 
i:)eople attend the school, and that there should be no distinctions 
as to opportunities. If any pupil merits special consideration 
and attention, it is the one unable to get to any college. The 
high school is the end of his preparation. His preparation 
should be the veiy best that the school can offer. 

As between what subjects are most needed by the majority of 
pupils in a given high school, and what subjects would best fit a 
few pupils for college entrance, a clear-headed principal would 
never hesitate. Even the college entrance examinations should 
be put out of mind in the high school teaching. These set ex- 
aminations have often been hurtfid to the best interests of the 
high schools and their pupils. They tend decidedly to crystallize 
the work of the high schools. Some high school teachers study 
these stereotyped questions, and bend every energy toward pre- 
paring their pupils to stand them. The great majority of 
these questions are tests of memory, or of information, rather 
than tests of power to think and to exercise judgment. It would 
seem that even the college often defeats its own purpose in these 
examinations. If a pupil comes to college able to read under- 
standingly, capable of appreciating a good book, and able to 
discuss intelligently a magazine article, what should the college 
care whether the pupil in the high school read Paradise Lost or 
the Jumping Frog, Macbeth or Treasure Island ? What matters 
it if a boy has read four Orations of Cicero or six, if he has a 
working knowledge of Latin sufficient to do the work before him 
in the college Latin ? Educators should be less concerned about 
what ground a pupil has covered, and more about what he is 
able to do. Emphasizing quantity results inevitably in goad- 
ing inferior teachers, inexperienced teachers, and teachers of 
faulty judgment into undertaking more work than their pupils 
can possibly do well. 

EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 

One of the big problems confronting the educator of today is 
that of determining educational values. Of the many suitable 
and available high school subjects, what special value does each 
possess, to what degree does it possess this special value, and 
how is the educator to determine the value? What subjects, if 



8 

any. are indispensable to all pupils? Is any subject valuable 
alike to all pupils? 

Once this whole problem was a very simple affair with the 
individual educator. When the available knowledge of the 
world was locked up in fewer than a half-dozen subjects, and 
when the suitable material for training men for the two or three 
learned professions could be counted on the fingers of one hand, 
the matter of educational values offered no practical difficulty. 
All the recognized secondary school subjects could be taken by 
every pupil. Naturally a single curriculum became established. 
This single ciu'riculum soon became a tradition, and no form of 
idolatry is more stubborn than the worship of a tradition. It 
refuses to listen to reason and laughs at argument. 

Wlien the newer subjects began to be evolved and organized, 
and to seek admission to this traditional curriculum, a fierce con- 
flict arose. The partisans of the traditional subjects and the 
advocates of the newer ones waged a livel}^ battle. As is usual 
in such contests, both sides made unwarranted claims for their 
respective groups of subjects. Out of the conflict came the doc- 
trine of formial discipline, a theorj^ which puts the mental train- 
ing, or mental discipline, derived from the study of a subject 
above the content of the subject. It also maintains that mental 
power is general, that is, power gained from the study of one 
subject can be exercised without diminution in the domain of 
any other subject. Strange to say, the most pronounced formal- 
ists are the most dogmatic when it comes to selecting the sub- 
jects from which this universal power is to be derived. 

Within the past twenty-five years the whole subject of edu- 
cational values has been very seriously studied by the best minds 
of this country. The last word has not been spoken, but on 
the salient points there is considerable unanimity. All are agreed 
that there is such a thing as mental discipline, but man}^ of the 
claims of its partisan exponents have been utterly rejected. 
Unless the content itself of any subject is worth the effort to 
learn it, the mere mental training it may give puts that subject 
on the list of doubtful value. The notion that any one sub- 
ject is as valuable, or may be made as valuable, • as any 
other subject is rejected. The notion that evei'^^one in order to 
l)e educated must have studied certain traditional subjects has 
but few defenders. In this connection Prof. Hecker aptly re- 
marks, "No one study is fitted for every mind." "How we teach 



a thing is more iinpoi-tant than what we teach," is one of the 
many rash assertions we hear made with more enthusiasm tlian 
deliberation. President Schurman of Cornell goes straight to 
the core of the whole matter. He says, "Education is not merely 
a training of mental powers; it is a process of nutrition; mind 
grows by what it feeds on, and the mental organism, like the 
physical organism, must have suitable and appropriate nourish- 
ment." To be sure, the mere disciplinary value of any subject is 
largely a matter of the manner and proficiency Avith which it is 
taught. But the nature and the content of the subject may not 
justify an expenditure of time and effort to master it. Some of 
the subjects in our present program of high school studies are 
rated below par, simply because they are not taught well enough 
or long enough to reveal their real value. On the other hand, 
the commonly accepted value of the content of other subjects is 
open to serious question. 

Anything like a discussion of educational values or of mental 
discipline is of too much import to be undertaken in a little 
manual. For an excellent discussion of the subject, the teacher 
is referred to Dr. W. H. Heck's Merited Discipline^ a recent 
volume of modest size. Perhaps the best single article on the 
subject for the average teacher is by Dr. B. A. Hinsdale, in the 
Educational Review, volume VIII, page 128. Another excellent 
article for the average teacher is b}^ Dr. Patterson Wardlaw, in 
the Educational Review, volume XXXV, page 22. 

For additional discussions of educational values teachers are 
advised to read 

Hanus' Educational Aims and, Educational Values. Mac- 
millan. 

Bagley's Educational Values. Macmillan. 

DeGarmo's Principles of Secondary Education (The Studies), 
chapters I-IV. Macmillan. 

Judd's Psychology of High School Suhj,ects. Ginn. 

progra:ms of study. 

When one reflects on the manifold aims of education in a 
modern democratic society, studies the function and the scope of 
the secondaiy school in this democratic society, and examines the 
educational values of the many suitable and available high school 
subjects, he is well-nigh overwhelmed with the bigness of the 
task of program making. Educators and committees of edu- 



10 

cators, representing the best thought of this country, have given 
years of stuch^ to the task. On many points these men and 
women are practically unanimous; on many other points they 
are far from agreed. Most educators are agreed that education 
to be efficient must be adjusted to those to be educated, and to 
the times in which they are to be educated. Therefore, in an 
advancing civilization with ever-changing economic, industrial, 
political, and social conditions, no program of studies could be 
made free from frequently needed revision. 

The time-honored traditional curriculum mentioned in the 
previous chapter has long dominated the high school, and its 
fetters are still about it. Preparation for college reenforces the 
strength of these fetters. Here and there you will find a high 
school principal, or a school board, courageous enough to dis- 
regard practice and tradition. Others hold theoretically that 
preparation for college is a secondary function of the high school, 
and that the traditional single curriculum is too narrow, but in 
practice they often repudiate their theory. The first and para- 
mount question asked by high school authorities with reference 
to any proposed change in the curriculum is, what credit will 
the colleges allow? Broadly speaking, many high schools ex- 
hibit little concern about the pupils not headed for college. 
Curriculums are not constructed primarily for them, and the 
character of the teaching often ignores them. 

The secondary school with but a single curriculum is an 
anachronism. It can not meet the needs of all the people. 
President Eliot says, "The pretended democratic school with an 
inflexible program is fighting not only against nature, but against 
the interests of democratic society." The single, inflexible 
curriculum ignores the various capacities, opportunities, tastes, 
ambitions, and ideals of the thousands of youngsters of high 
school age. Neither fond parents nor obstinate schoolmiasters may 
undertake to disregard with impunity the handi^vork of the Al- 
mighty. The Creator has endowed pupils Avitli A-arious types of 
mind and various aims in life. Thousands of capable pupils 
either do not enter the high school or they leave it before grad- 
uation, because the}^ ask for bread and are given a stone. The 
misfits and the Avrecks among so-called educated men and women 
have not j^et made us see our folly. You can educate, as we 
say, or develop, Avhat is implanted by nature in an individual, 
but you can not remake him. The size or the shape of an oak tree 



11 

may be largely determined by the skill of the care-taker, but he 
can not train it into a cypress. In the terse language of a recent 
writer, "There is no shop in all the world that manufactures 
human capabilities and keeps them on sale." 

There is yet another vital reason why the single curriculum 
is too narrow. Trades and vocations by which men earn an 
honest living have multiplied a hundredfold almost within a 
century. Year by year some of these are taking on the dignity 
of professions. The professions themselves have grown in num- 
ber and have been almost infinitely subdivided. New fields of 
thought are being opened up with amazing frequency. The 
scientist in his laboratory within a moon overturns the super- 
stitions and traditions of a milleniuni and establishes a new de- 
partment of science. Knowledge one century ago hidden from 
the sage and the philosopher is today the familiar possession 
of boys and girls in the high school. To mteet all these marvel- 
ously changed conditions is the antiquated curriculum now four 
centuries old. 

The destruction of this ancient curriculum is not desirable. 
Instead; enrich it, broaden it, and readjust it to modem needs. 
It is a fine thing for some pupils, but not for all. The Erie 
Canal is just as good a commercial higliAvay as it was in 1830, but 
it is relatively less important. It is no longer the only highway 
of that region. Because it has rivals Avould be no reason for 
filling it up. 

There are at least three ways by which a school may improve 
upon the narrow single curriculum once so popular. If the 
school has sufficient teachers and pupils to warrant it, a. program 
of at least two curriculms may be offered. Small schools unable 
to support two curriculums may have but one curriculum made 
up of several required subjects and a small group of electives. 
Still smaller high schools may offer a single curriculum with a 
minimum number of subjects required of all pupils, and a small 
number of optional subjects for the stronger pupils. Each of 
these plans is stated somewhat in detail in the paragraphs follow- 
ing the five curriculums here given. 

The high school subjects are classified under three group head- 
ings — the humanities, the natural sciences, and the economic 
sciences. Any curriculum in order to be well-balanced ought to 
contain some subjects from each of these groups. A curriculum 
composed entirely of subjects from any one group would be 
narrow. 



12 

After a curriculiiin has been determined upon, yet another 
task awaits the progi-am maker. The courses of study inside 
the curricuhim must be arranged. Shall plane geometry be 
taken up before the completion of algebra, or shall it follov/? 
Shall physics or chemistry precede? How shall the English 
course be arranged — shall grammar, composition, and literature 
be taken simultaneously or tandem? Which shall be the last 
year for arithmetic? "V^^iat shall be the order for giving his- 
tory? Some discussion of these matters will be given in the 
paragraphs dealing Avith these subjects as studies. 

The curriculum or the curriculums of a school are an unfail- 
ing index to the strength or weakness of the man that made 
them. The curriculum may have a clear-cut purpose, or it may 
be vague and aimless; it may be rich in the content of its sub- 
jects, or it may have in it every mark of poverty; it may be 
strong in its articulation and sequence of subjects, or it may be 
disjointed and scrappy; the aiTangement of the work may be 
smooth, resembling a gentle ascent, or it may be irregular, re- 
semlbling a rugged mountain side; finally, it may be a well grad- 
uated road le<iding from the beginning of the first year's work 
to the end of the last year's work, or it may be a circular ])ath 
in Avhich pupils after three or four years find themselves facing 
some of the same Avork they had the first month in the high 
school. 

The time allotments in the curriculum and in the daily schedule 
show with reasonable certainty whether the maker of them has 
an adequate idea of educational values and symmetry, or thinks 
that his favorite subjects constitute the sum of all education. 
One can have but little faith in the judgment of a curriculum- 
maker or a schedule-maker who provides for two recitations a 
day in one subject to the neglect of other subjects, simph^ be- 
cause he fancies the teaching of the particular subject thus em- 
phasized. A curriculum that allots to algebra three years and 
to physical geography or commerical geography a total of not 
more than a half-year of daily recitations does not speak well 
for the judgment of its maker. No broad-minded educator 
Avould think of making a curriculum with four years of history, 
four years of a foreign langiiage, four or five years of mathe- 
m'atics, and but one year of natural science. 

The obvious conclusion of the whole matter is that ill-trained 
and inexperienced teachei^ are ill-prepared to undertake so big 



13 

and important a task as program making for a high school. The 
Department of Superintendence of the State Teachers Associa- 
tion, recognizing fully the importance of i)rogram making and 
the labor involved in doing such work, at its annual meeting in 
December, 191(), appointed a special connnittee to study the whole 
question and to make a detailed repoit a year later. That com- 
mittee consisted of Pattei-son Wardlaw, Chairman; W. H. 
McNairy, Secretary; J. W. Thomson, E. S. Dreher, S. H. 
Edmunds, Frank Evans, W. H. Hand. After studying the 
whole field a year, and after several meetings of the entire com- 
mittee, it made its report to the Department of Superintendence 
in December, 1917. The report was unanimously adopted, and 
subsequently was fully endorsed by the State Board of Edu- 
cation. Therefore, that report is incorporated in this Manual at 
this place. 

PROGRAMS OF STUDY, CURRICULUMS, AND 
COURSES FOR FOUR-YEAR HIGH SCHOOLS. 



A program of studies is used to mean all the studies offered in 
an}^ one high school; a curriculum means the group of studies 
schematically arranged for any pupil or class; a course of study 
uieans the quantity of work offered in any one subject. 

The term major study designates one that is given five 45- 
minute periods a week for 3G weeks. A minor study designates 
one that is given not more than one-half time. 

The following reconmiendations are made: 

1. That 14 standard units, as defined by the State High School 
Inspector, be required for graduation, and that no school, except 
possibly a few especially strong in teaching force, should attempt 
as many as 16 units in a single curriculum; that 16 units in four 
years might be attem})ted by a few exceptionally able pupils. 

2. That not more than four major studies be required eacb 
year; that a pupil of exceptional ability be allowed to take five 
major studies in some years. 

?>. That certain constants be required of all pupils in all curri- 
culums, and that the remainder of the studies be electives which 
shall determine the names of the curriculums. 

4. That these constants be: English, four years; Algebra to 
quadratics, one and a fraction years; American Histoiy and 



14 

Civics, one year; any other course in history, one year; Natural 
Science, one year; Aritlinietic, one year or half time for two 
years. 

5. That Plane Geometry be strongly recomanended for all 
pupils fqj' one year. In exceptional cases it may be regarded an 
elective. 

G. That Manual Training for boys and Household Arts for 
girls, including Domestic Science and Domestic Art, be classed 
as minor studies and be required of all pupils for two years 
where the school has the teaching force and the equipment, and 
that credit be given according to the laboratory hours given to 
each. 

7. That as many of the following major studies be offered as 
electives as the school is able to teach : Latin, four years; Mathe- 
matics, three years; Natural Science, three years; History, one 
year; Modern Languages, tAvo years of each; Agriculture at least 
two years. 

8. That the course in each subject be as follows: 

English : 

1. Grammar and study of classics — 1st year. 

2. Composition and study of classics — 2d year. 

3. Composition and classics — 3rd year. (One-half of compo- 
sition text to be used in 2d year, and the other half to be used 
in third year.) 

4. Grammatical analysis, simple narrative history of British 
and American literatures, study of classics — 1th year. 

Mathematics : 

1. Algebra through quadratic equations — 1st and 2d years. 

2. Plane geometry — Srd year, 

3. Solid geometiy, algebra reviewed and binomial theorem, 
arithmetical and geometrical progressions^ — 4th year. 

4. Arithmetic, one-half time 1st year, and one-half time any 
succeeding jquv. 

History : 

1. Ancient history — 2d year. 

2. Medieval and modern history, with special emphasis on 
English history — 3d year. 

3. American historv and civics — Itli vear. 



15 

Natural Science : 

1. General Science^ — 1st year. 

2. Biolog\% elementaiy and practical— 2cl year. 

3. Chemistry — 3d year. 

4. Physics — 4th year. 

5. Agriculture — 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th years: or 3d and 4th 
years. 

Latin : 

1. Beginners' Book — 1st year and part of 2d year. 

2. Caesar, first three books, or accepted equivalent — part of 
2d and 3d years. 

3. Cicero, four orations — 3d year. 

4. Vergil, four books — 4th year. 

Modern Languages : 

1. French — 1st and 2d years. 

2. Gennan — 3d and 4th years. 

3. Spanish — 3d and 4th years. 

Commercial Subjects: 

1. Commercial arithmetic — 2d year. 

2. Bookkeeping — 3d year. 

3. Stenogi'aphy and typewriting — 3d and 4th years. 

4. Commercial geography — 4th year. 

5. Commercial law — 4th year. 

STUDIES GROUPED BY YEARS. 
Required : Elective : 

I. 

English I Latin I 

Algebra I General Science 

*Arithmetic French I 

Agriculture I 

II. 

English III 

Latin II 
Algebra II Biology 

Ancient Histoiy 

French II 

Commercial Arithmetic 

Agriculture II 



IG 



III. 



English III 



English IV 
American Histy 



and Civics 



IV 



*Not more than half year re- 
quired in first year. 

One additional 3'^ear History. 
One year Science. 



Latin III 

Plane Geometry 

Chemistry 

Med. and Mod. History 

Agriculture III 

German I 

Spanish I 

lk)okkeeping 

Stenography & Typewriting I 

Latin IV 

Solid Geom. & Adv. Alg. 

Phyics 

Agriculture IV 

German II 

Spanish II 

Commercial Geography 

Commercial Law 

Steiiography & Typewriting II 



CLASSICAL 



CURRICULUMS. 

SCIENCE 



Engflish I 

Algebra I 

Latin I 

Arith. & Bus. Meth 

General Science 

Prencli I 



English II 
Algebra II 
Latin II 
Ancient History 

Biolog)^ 

l^rench II 



Elect 



one 



Elect 



one 



English I 
Algebra I 
General Science 
Arith. & Bus. :Meth 
French I 



Elect 
one 



IL 



Enghsh II 
Algebra II 
Biology- 
Ancient Histy ) Elect 

French II i one 



17 



III. 



English III 
Plane Geometry- 
Latin lU 

Med. & ]Mod. Histy 

Chemistiy I Elect 

German I ( one 

Spanish I 



English IV 
Latin IV 

Am. Histy. & Civics 
Solid Geom, & xVdv. 



English III 

Plane Geometry 

Chemistry 

Med. & Mod. Histy. 

German 1 



Elect 



one 



IV. 



1 



Algebra 



Elect 



one 



Phyics 

Gemian II 

Spanish II J 

Of the electives arithmetic, 
one science, and additional year 
in history must be taken. 
MODERN LANGUAGE : 



English IV 

Physics 

Am. Histy. & Civics 

Solid Geom. & Adv. 

Algebra 

Conmiercial Geog. . . 
German II 

Of the electives 
and additional year 
must be taken. 
COMMERICAL: 



Elect 
one 

arithmetic 
in history 



English I 

Algebra I .j 

French I 

.Vrith & Bus. Meth 

General Science. . . . 



English II 
Algebra II 
French II 
Ancient Histy 
Biolofn' 



Elect 



one 



Elect 
one 



English I 
Algebra I 
Arith. & Bus. Meth. 

General Science. . . . 
French I 



I Elect 
i one 



English III 
Plane Geometry 
German I, or Spanish I 
Med. & Mod. Histy 
Chemistry 



Elect 



one 



II. 

English n 
Algebra II 
Commercial Arith. 

Ancient Histy 

Biology 

French II 

III. 

English ni 
Plane Geometry 
Bookkeeping 
Med. & Mod. Histy. 

Chemistry 

German I 

Spanish I 

Stenog. & Typewrit- 
ing I. 



Elect 
one 



Elect 
one 



18 



IV. 



English IV 

American Histy. & Civics 
German II, or Spanish II 
Solid Geom. & Adv. 1 

Alg ■ 

Physics 

Commercial Geo- 
graphy 



Elect 
one 



Elect 



one 



Of the electives arithmetic, 
one science, and additional 
year in history must be taken. 



AGRICULTURE : 

I. 
English I 
Algebra I 
Agriculture I 

Arithmetic 

General Science .... 

II. 
English II 
Algebra II 
Agriculture II 

Biology 

Ancient Hist}^ ....... 

Commercial Arith . . 

III. 
English III 
Agriculture III 
Chemistry 

Plane Geometry. . . . 
Med. & Mod. Histy. 
Farm Bookkeeping. 



Elect 
one 



Elect 
one 



Elect 
two 



English IV 

American Histy. & Civics 

Commercial Geo- ~ 
graphy 

Commercial Law . . . 

Phyics 

German II 

Spanish II 

Stenog. & Typewrit- 
ing II 
Of the electives one science 

and additional year in history 

must be taken. 



IV. 
English IV 
Agriculture IV 
American Hist. & Civics 

Physics ] Elect 

Commercial Geog... \ one 

Of the electives arithmetic 
and additional year in history 
must be taken. 

Agriculture I and II may be 
taken together in alternate 
years. Ill and IV may be 
taken in the same wav. 



These curriculums and the directions are easy to understand. 
The required subjects in any curriculum are printed in heavy 
face type; the elective subjects are given by years, and the nmn- 



19 

ber of electiAes bj^ years is indicated; the time allotment to each 
subject is suggested. 

The number of curriculums offered in any school will depend 
upon the number of teachers employed, the number of pupils in 
the school, and the number of recitation periods in the daih^ 
schedule. But four major subjects to the year are strongly 
I'ecommended, and 45-minute recitation periods are as strongly 
recommended. Six 45-minute recitation periods a day may be 
considered full work for a high school teacher, although there 
is nothing in the law fixing the number. This matter will be 
taken up again under Supervised Study. 

It is easy to see that a 4-year curriculum requires 16 daily 
recitation periods. With six daily recitations to the teacher, it 
requires the full time of two teachers and four periods a day 
of the third teacher. It ought to be apparent to even a super- 
ficial observer that two teachers can not handle with any degree 
of satisfaction a 4-year curriculum. 

While a single 4-year curriculum requires 16 daily recitation 
periods, it does not necessarily follow that two curriculums 
would require 32 daily periods. Consider the Classical and 
Science curricukmis together. Unless the English classes taking 
the two curriculums would be too large, only four periods would 
be necessaiy for both. The same would be true as to the algebra 
in the first and second years, the plane geometry in the third 
year, and the American history in the fourth year. That is, four 
periods would take care of both curriculums. In the first year 
general science is required in one of these curriculums, and it is 
an elective in the other. Should general science be the elective 
given in the Classical curriculum, no additional teaching period 
Avould be necessary. French and arithmetic are electives in both 
curriculums. The same arrangement is found in the second year 
as to biology and ancient history, and as to French, In the third 
year chemistry is required in one and is an elective in the other. 
German and modern history are electives in both. In the fourth 
year physics is required in one and is an elective in the other. 
Solid geometry and Gennan are electives in both. In short, if 
no year-class or grade should be too large to be taught to- 
gether, the Classical and Science curriculums could be given 
with 20 daily recitation periods. Twenty periods require the 
full time of three teachers and two periods a day of a fourth 
teacher. Of course, this is the equivalent of one curriculum re- 



20 

quiring three specified subjects in each year and offering an 
option between two cJther specified subjects as the fourth subject. 
Each of these curricukims was constructed with the intention 
of making it adaptable to 3-year high schools. But little read- 
justment is necessar}^ In the case of history the American 
history should be transferred to the third year, and either ancient 
or modern history put in the second. The reasons for this 
arrangement are given in the discussion of History later in the 
Manual. In a 3-year school only one modern language could be 
profitably given. The second and third years seem to be the 
proper places. In choosing between physics and chemistry in 
the 3-year school, give the one the school is better equipped to 
teach. 

Sug-gestions As To Programs. 

1. Every high school of as many as GO pupils ought to offer 
four years of Avork. A high school of 60 pupils with less than 
four years is failing to perform what it owes to the community. 
A school of 50 pupils can maintain a 4-year program and keep 
the cost of maintenance within reason. A high school of fewer 
than 50 pupils is advised against undertaking a 4-year program. 
To provide such a school with the necessary teaching force of 
efficient grade makes the cost per pupil too great. Besides, the 
average 4th-year class in a school of fewer than 50 pupils is too 
small to justify' its maintenance. No one has the right to burden 
the community to support an unreasonabh^ small 4-year school 
simply to gratify' his pride. An automobile is a useful, con- 
venient, and pleasurable thing, but if a person is unable to af- 
ford one, the sensible thing to do is not to tr}^ to own one. The 
same logic is applicable to a school that the community is un- 
able to support. 

2. Sup]>ose that your high school has in the 1st year 25 
pupils, in the 2d year 20, in the 3d year 15, and in the 4th year 
10 — a total of TO pupils. It has alreadj^ been shown that two 
curriculums require the full time of three teachers and two 
periods daily by a fourth teacher. The best interests of 70 
pupils can hardly be served by a single curriculum, but it is 
sometimes exceedingly difficult to make the community see this. 
No year-class or grade in the school is too large to be taught 
by one teacher, and so long as this is true it is all the more 
difficult to set additional teachers. If vou can not g-et the neces- 



21 

saiy teachers to offer tAvo ciirriculums, the prudent thing seems 
to be to offer one good curricuhnn with as man}' electives as 
possible. 

3. Suppose that j^our high school has in the first year 20 
pupils, in the 2d year 15, in the 3d year 10, and in the 4th year 
5 — a total of 50 pupils, the smallest number that would justify 
a 4-3^ear program. In the ordinaiy school of this size it would 
be unwise to undertake to offer two curriculums. The reasons 
are obvious. To divide the 10 pupils in the 3d-year class into 
two sections would be destructive of the class spirit and rivalry 
that come from medium size classes, and to divide the 5 4th-year 
pupils into two sections would be foll3^ In such a case offer but 
one curriculum. Arrange for the 2d-year and 3d-year pupils to 
take history together one year, and for the same pupils as 3d- 
year and 4th-year pupils the following year to take history 
together. In this way two daily recitations ma}^ be eliminated 
without serious hurt to anybody. In the same way the 3d-year 
and 4th-year pupils may take literature together, thus effecting a 
further saving of time. The time thus saved can be given to some 
necessary electives in the Ist-year and 2d-year classes, where the 
number of pupils would justify two sections. 

4. According to the plan recommended by the Conxmittee on 
Programs, the 3-year high school of a single curriculum would 
require 12 dail}' recitations. Two full-time teachers can teach 
such a curriculum, but it should be borne in mind that such a 
school does not serve the best interests of all the pupils. As lias 
already been pointed out, two curriculums can be so arranged 
as to require but three additional daily recitations. Hence, two 
teachers fidl time and a third teacher half time can offer two 
curriculums in a 3-year high school, provided no year-class or 
grade is large enough to require two sections. 

5. The 2-teacher 3-year high school, a very common type, pre- 
sents several serious difficulties. In the first place, it is in 
danger of suffering from the over ambition of its teachers in 
their vain attempt to duplicate the work of larger schools with 
better equipment. In the second place, its patrons and sup- 
porters too often share the ambition of the teachers, sometimes 
to excuse themselves for not providing enough teachers, and 
sometimes from ignorance. In the next place, most of the 2- 
teacher schools make desperate attempts to convert themselves 
into preparatory' schools for college. The 2-teacher high school 



22 

should adhere strictly to a 3-year curriculum, four subjects to the 
year-class or grade, and 45 minutes to the recitation. The small 
high school can not undertake so much as the larger schools, 
but it can do well what it undertakes, if it is content to do so. 
In the school of this class let the 2d-year and 3d-year pupils 
take histor^^ and literature together every year. Thus enough 
time will be saved from the 12 daily periods to enable an election 
between two subjects in the first year and between two in the 
second year. In most such schools the 3d-year class is too small 
to justify two sections. Of course, the entire situation Avould 
be changed by teaching seven periods a day, but such is not 
recommended. The reasons are stated in the paragraphs on 
Supervised Study. 

THE OXE-TEACHER HIGH SCHOOL. 

In South Carolina the high school of two teachers is the small- 
est type designated as a high school. Below this type in teach- 
ing force is what is known as the one-teacher high school. This 
type of school at present has a distinct function. It occupies an 
almost unique position. It is the connecting link between the 
distinct elementary country school and the high school of 
standard equipment and grade. With the proper organization 
and management it can become a powerful incentive to the 
elementary country school, and the chief instrument in bringing 
about the establishment of high schools of standard equipment 
and grade in many country places at present without such 
facilities. The only Avay for country communities to have, with- 
in their own borders, high schools with enough pupils to justify 
the employment of enough competent teachers to serve a high 
school, is to combine the high school pupils of several small 
schools in one high school. Whenever two or more one-teacher 
high schools take this step, they are performing their greatest 
service to the communities concerned. 

At present most of the one-teacher high schools are failing to 
measure up to their opportunities, because they are unwilling to 
confine their eilorts to the work they are prepared to do. For 
one teacher to undertake to do more than two years of high 
school work, however small the classes, is pitiable pretense, if not 
l^lain humbuggery. Let there be no misunderstanding on this 
i:)oint. There is a vast dift'erence between teaching a 3-year high 
school and coaching two or three pupils for three years to enter 



23 

some college. The parents of the pupils who are being- coached 
are satisfied with having the teacher give his time to their 
children; the less fortunate parents either do not realize what is 
taking place or are indifferent; the school poses as a high school, 
and it is all but impossible to persuade such a community to help 
maintain a real high school. If the one-teacher high school 
would undertake a 2-Year curriculum of but few studies, and do 
that work well, it would soon convince its patrons that they need 
something better, and they w^ould join forces with some neighbor- 
ing community or communities in establishing a first-class high 
school, independent of their elementary schools. So long as the 
one-teacher high school continues its present policy of putting on 
ambitious airs it will be a hindrance to real high school education 
rather than a help. 

THE HIGH SCHOOL PKINCIPAL. 

1. By high school principal is meant the person charged with 
only the high school department, or the person teaching in the 
high school and supervising the elementary grades. It is to be 
regretted that so many of the latter class insist on calling them- 
selves superintendents. 

2. The principal is intrusted with the general oversight of 
the high school. Of course, he is expected to work in harmony 
with the superintendent, if there be one, and with the school 
board. In any school there ought to be no doubt or ambiguity 
as to what the principal's functions and authority are. If there 
should be any doubt, trouble is almost sure to come. 

3. A principal ought to be a constructive and directive force. 
In order to be siiccessfid he must have a comprehensive view 
of the aims of education and a familiar knowledge of the means. 
A principal of but one idea, or of a closed mind, is doomed to 
failure. 

4. Even with State adopted textbooks, a State program of 
studies, and suggested curriculums, the principal must construct 
courses of study for individual classes and make schedules of 
work for his teachers. This work challenges the best that is in 
a principal, and a principal without previous high school ex- 
l>erience is doing a daring thing to assume such responsibilities. 
It is hazardous for any teacher to begin his career by assuming 
the principalship of a high school, no matter how small. Both 
he and the school are endangered. 



24 

5. In the selection of his teachers the principal is entitled to 
some voice. Sometimes this right is Avithheld from him or re- 
fused him. For a school board or a superintendent to do either 
is unwise, and the results are harmful. The principal ought to 
know more about teachers than the board is expected to know, 
and his judgment ought to count with the superintendent. 
AVhether or not he has any voice in the selection of teachers, he 
should certainly have the authority to assign them to their work. 
In doing this he should be very careful. The highest interests 
of the school and the reputation of his teachers are at stake. In 
the school are certain tasks to be done and results to be attained, 
and the teachers have varying fitness and a variety of aptitudes. 
All of these things must be taken into consideration. 

0. The principal should make it perfectly clear to his teach- 
ers what his ideals and aims are, what the needs of the school 
are, and how he and the teachers may w^ork together for the 
common good. He should ask for definite results, and encourage 
the teachers to use their own resources in getting results. The 
principal may have a better way of doing a thing than a teacher 
may have, but she may be able to do the thing in her way but not 
in his way. The best service a principal can render a teacher is 
to develop an individuality in her. 

7. A principal has no right to require any teacher to do what 
he could not do. If it is necessaiy to have done Avhat he can not 
do, he is fully justifiable in asking her to consider it. If she 
undertakes it and succeeds, she is entitled to the full credit. If 
she fails, the principal should not leave her to bear the blame. 
Moreover, it is an injustice to a teacher and harmful to a school 
to require a teacher to try to teach a subject in wdiich she has had 
no training. It not infrequently happens that a teacher is 
given a textbook in such subjects as physical geography, com- 
mercial geography, physiology, and agi'iculture, and told to teach 
a class, w^hen the principal knows that the teacher has never 
seriously studied the subject. What but failure can be ex- 
pected ? 

8. Teachers have a right to look to their principal as their 
friend, helper, sympathizer, and inspirer. Any principal not so 
regarded by his teachers needs to discover the reasons without 
delay. Frankness, sympathy, and helpfulness always bring 
loyalty. 



25 

9. A principal Avho does not imderstancl boys and girls of the 
adolescent age had better learn them or give up his position. 
Xo amount of scholarship or professional training will stand liim 
instead of a familiarity with the characteristics of boys and girls 
• — their strength, their weaknesses, their impulses, their eccen- 
tricities, and their ways of looking at things. Many a principal, 
in the right, has ignored the viewpoint of his pupils and brought 
about a crisis that could have been avoided without surrendering 
or temporizing. 

10. The principal should remember that his school is not con- 
fined to pupils, teachers, and books. The world outside the 
school must be kept in mind. The parents of those in the school 
and the people who have no children in the school are essential 
parts of that school. These people support the school financially 
and morally. The entire community watches the course of the 
principal. People everywhere admire a strong leader and a safe 
counselor. Herein lies a great opportunity for the principal. 

11. It would be hazardous to undertake to say how much 
teaching, if any, a principal should do. In a small school in 
which funds are scarce and the teachers few, the principal has 
but little choice in the matter of his own teaching.* It would 
seem unnecessary for a principal to give more than one-half his 
time to supervising 10 to 12 teachers, unless he is nmning a train- 
ing school for teachers. The principal is invariably paid a 
higher salary than any of his teachers. If he should give, in 
the judgment of his teachers, more time to supervision than is 
necessary or profitable to the school, he will find it very difficult 
to retain their confidence and loyalty. Alert teachers are quick 
to discern when they are over-supervised or needlessly supervised. 
TliejT^ are equally quick to see if the principal is using his super- 
vision periods for supervision. If he does not, he can not hope 
to retain their confidence, loj^alty, or respect. Moreover, the 
more actual teaching a principal does the more practical he is, 
and the closer the bond of sympathy between him and his as- 
sistants. Almost all of the long, tedious, theoretical, and dog- 
matic dissertations on teaching are written by men and women 
who do no teaching. 

12. It ought to be perfectly clear that the principal who 
teaches all the time, or nearly all the time, has but little oppor- 
tunity to observe the work of his teachers or to help them. The 
school with four, six, or eight teachers whose principal gives 



26 

his entire time to teaching is usually weak in organization. Each 
teacher has a little school independent of the others. Some 
teachers may be requiring too much of their pupils, while others 
are requiring too little. There is little concert of effort in the 
school. On the other hand, the principal of any but a vers' 
large school who does no teaching ought to be perfectly familiar 
with the work of every teacher in his charge. He has absolutely 
no excuse for letting inferior work go on among his teachers. 
He is supposed to have the ability to direct and to help them, and 
he has notliing to do but to direct and help them. 

13. A prudent person will be very careful about assuming the 
principalship of a school in which there are teachers whose edu- 
cation or training is superior to his own. Many a promising 
young man has met his Waterloo from a failure to exercise a little 
forethought in this matter. Besides, it would not be well for 
any but a principal of established reputation to take charge of 
a school with any considerable number of teachers who from 
mere long service have come to regard themselves as indis- 
pensable to the school. 

14. The principal of a school has not time to carry on any 
other business. If the salary offered is insufficient, the principal 
ought to refuse to accept the position. He would make a mis- 
take to accept the position, unless he intends to give his entire 
time and thought to it. Of course, he could sell the school a 
part of his time and give the remainder to some other business 
and be honest, but could he hope to succeed in either? 

15. Neither a lazy man nor a slouchy and uncouth one will 
ever make a fit principal to put over boys and girls. The lazy 
man is so nearly hopeless that we may dismiss him. The slouchy 
and uncouth man has no place in the schoolroom. Pupils are 
to be polished as well as taught. A man may be a genuine 
diamond in the rough;, but a slouchy, uncouth, crude, and angular 
principal does not promise much toward polishing others. 
Polish given to boys and girls of the high school age is more or 
less permanent, that given to them after they pass that age is 
too frequently mere veneer. 

16. Almost all 2-teacher and 3-teacher high schools have at 
least one man teacher, the supervising principal. In most co- 
educational high schools of more than three teachers the pro- 
portion of men is unfortimately small. The boy of the high 
school age needs something that no woman can furnish — the pe- 



27 

culiar influence which conies from intimate companionship with a 
strong man. A woman can teach him, but she can not be a man 
to him. It is idle to talk about a woman's taking the place or 
the part of a man in the education of a boy. A woman can no 
more take a man's place than a man can take a woman's place. 
Both are necessary in the training of both boys and girls. 

IT. A principal on going to a new^ school would do well to 
make in it as few changes as possible, no matter how badly 
needed, until he shall have had sufficient time to win the con- 
fidence and support of his teachers and patrons. 

THE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER. 

Personality counts for more than anything else in the high 
school teacher. Personality, poise, and tact are winning quali- 
ties in any teacher. x\ny person endowed with common sense, 
approachableness, sincerity, good manners, and an agreeable 
voice ought not to have any excuse for failure as a teacher, un- 
less he is an ignorannis as to his subject matter. Any teacher 
with such endowments can get a grip on the lives of high school 
boys and girls. HoAvever, the teacher must never confuse com- 
panionableness with kittenish familiarity. The reserved and 
unapproachable teacher never draws pupils or holds them, and 
the. obsequious teacher invariably repels and disgusts pupils. 
Excitable and impetuous people ought not to attempt to teach. 
Bluntness and rudeness have no place in the schoolroom. Sar- 
casm is never the tool of a great teacher; it is the weapon of 
weaklings. A bad voice is a handicap. A whining, rasping or 
high-keyed voice irritates people in even the most favorable cir- 
cumstances. A nagging teacher never succeeds, and the worst of 
it is the nagger never seems to realize that he does nag. Any 
man or woman, by careful watching and determined effort, can 
completely transform his personality. 

'2. The teacher may be master of himself and master of his 
subjects, but unless he can command the respect, the confidence, 
and the interest of his pupils, and give them some permanent 
inspiration, he need not look for marked success. Some excellent 
scholars are all but total failures as teachers, simply because they 
never grip their pupils. Pupils must be reached before they 
can be taught. The person taught and the thing to be taught 
must be reduced to a common denominator, so to speak, before 
there is anj^^ genuine teaching. 



28 

3. The teacher who never meets his pupils outside the class- 
room on teiTns of companionship, rarely ever succeeds in enteriiif^ 
their inner lives, their holy of holies. R^al comradeship may be 
cultivated in the classroom, but that is hardly the ideal place for it 
to originate, nor is it the best place to cultivate it. In the 
average classroom there are too many things to prevent or to 
impede the closest comradeship between teacher and pupil. 
Even the common question-and-answer method of conducting 
recitations does not foster an ideal comradeship. This is es- 
pecially true with teachers who keep their little grade books in 
constant evidence. To such teachers the average pupil has as 
little to say as possible on the recitation. 

4. In order to make a companion of a pupil the teacher must 
meet him on his own ground, not on the ground of the teacher. 
The teacher must find out the pupil's tastes, his hopes, his as- 
pirations, his difficulties, his discouragements. He must find 
these out indirectly. They are too sacred to be discussed in the 
classroom, and the average pupil can not be lured into discussing 
them among his fellows. As a big brother the teacher can get 
at them. On a quiet walk, on a fishing trip, or on some similar 
occasion, the teacher can draw the pupil into revealing his whole 
inner life. In doing all this the' teacher must never play the 
detective nor betray the pupil. If he does, the pupil will quickly 
discover it and never forgive him. The follow^ing fine sentences 
are from Tom Browns School Days: "The object of all schools 
is not to ram Latin and Greek into boys, but to make them good 
English boys, good future citizens; and by far the most im- 
portant part of that work mnst be done, or not done, out ot 

school hours Were I a private schoolmaster, I should say, 

'Let who will hear the boys their lessons, but let me live with 
them when they are at play and rest.' " The old-time country 
school, with its long noon recess at which the teacher and the 
pupils played together, offered the teacher an opportunity to 
grip the inner lives of his pupils which is impossible in our 
modern schools with their existing schedules. 

5. In successful teaching there is absolutehT^ no substitute for 
sound scholarship. It is a powerful asset. Good scholarship 
has been defined as a thorough knowledge of a few things and a 
general knowledge of a great many things. It ought not to be 
necessary to remind teachers that no one can teach properlj'^ any 
subject with only a superficial knowledge of it, yet it is to be 



29 

feared that some teachers attempt it. To teach a subject with 
any degree of success the teacher must, be at home in it. A teach- 
er is courting professional suicide when he undertakes to teach a 
subject about Avhich he knows little. Xo teacher is expected to 
be able to teach all the subjects offered in even a small high 
school, and he ought not to feel ashamed to admit frankly his 
unpreparedness to teach some of them. 

6. A teacher may be well fitted to teach elementary grades,, 
and be wholly unfit to teach high school subjects or high school 
pupils. Owing to his small teaching force, a principal some- 
times brings an elementary teacher into the high school for one 
or two periods a day. This is always attended with risk. After 
a teacher has adjusted herself to young children three or four 
hours, it is Avell-nigh impossible for her to readjust herself im- 
mediately to adolescents. The two classes of pupils think and 
move on an entirely different plane. 

7. Dr. Thomas Arnold once wrote to a friend for assistance in 
finding a teacher. He said, "I want a Christian gentleman, one 
who has common sense and understands boys." By common 
sense he did not mean sense common to all people, but sense about 
common things, ever^^-day affairs. A profound scholar and a 
highly trained teacher in the art of teaching might make himself 
ridiculous about som'e every-day affair. A teacher with a 
reputation for having no common sense is to be pitied. 

8. A teacher on going to a new place ought to be careful 
about the traditions of the community. Some of the customs 
and habits of the people may to the teacher seem provincial, but 
if he is wise, he will walk and talk circumspectly. A few words 
spoken rashly, no matter how truthfully, may arouse sucli a feel- 
ing of resentment as to make his life a burden and his work an 
utter failure. The lares and penates of a conununity must be 
given a prudent respect, at least until the teacher has established 
himself in the hearts of the community. Resentment and antag- 
onism are almost certain to come from unnecessaiy and un- 
favorable criticism of some former teacher. Any teacher is un- 
wise to make openly adverse criticisms about his predecessor or 
his work. In the first place, such criticisms do no good. In 
the next place, the predecessor's friends are ready to defend him, 
and even his enemies will resent the criticisms as cowardly. 

9. Teachers sometimes make serious blunders in seeking em- 
ployment in a school and in accepting positions in it Avithout 



30 

laiowing anything of the school, the principal, or the people. 
The very ideals of the school may be repugnant to the teacher. 
The principal may be egotistic, selfish, ignorant, exacting, un- 
sympathetic or otherwise unattractive. The teacher and the 
people may have nothing in common. Prudence would suggest 
learning something of the environment before going into it. 

10, The success of a school depends veiy much upon the 
harmony among the teachers. Concord among teachers makes 
work joyous; discord makes the work a drudgery and life bur- 
densome. If a teacher finds that he can not work in harmony 
with his fellows, he ought to withdraw from the school. A teach- 
er wdio will not work in harmony with his fellows should be dis- 
missed at once. 

11. It is utterly useless for a dull, phlegmatic teacher, with- 
out a particle of enthusiasm, to hope to inspire pupils Avith any 
zeal for their work. Inspiration is contagious. When a teach- 
er complains that an entire class is lacking in spirit and en- 
thusiasm, he is giving himself a very poor recommendation. It 
is his business to discover the cause of the trouble and to apply 
the remedy. The fire that comes from inspiration burns with a 
steady glow. Pupils may be coddled and cajoled into spasmodic 
efforts, or they may be flattered into believing that they are do- 
ing good work, but unless their enthusiasm is genuine, the fire 
is soon burnt out. 

THE HIGH SCHOOL PUPIL. 

It is no disrespect to say that the pupil of high school age is 
a complex and perplexing young animal. Throughout the his- 
tory of the race he has been a riddle. He is equally interesting 
and likable, and his possibilities can scarcely be measured. The 
high school pupil, adolescent, must be studied, understood, and 
reckoned with, if he is to be taught. There are some very pro- 
nounced characteristics more or less common to all pupils of 
this age. He is usually rash in speech and action. Impetuosity 
is one of his native weaknesses. He jmnps at conclusions, and 
does his thinking afterwards. He loves excitement and ad- 
venture, and wanderlust often takes possession of him. He likes 
the big things and has little patience with the little things. For 
instance, he chafes when he states his proposition in geometrj^ 
and is not permitted to follow the statement immediately with 
the conclusion. He spurns the step-by-step solution. He is care- 



31 

less and irresponsible, because he does not yet know the value of 
being otherAvise. 

2. The other side of this animal is found in his alertness and 
his vigor, his pride and his honor. The normal boy of fifteen is 
neither dull nor asleep. And with all his impetuosity and wild 
spirit, he likes to be directed and controlled. He admires 
strength and authority justly exercised. He does his best to have 
his own Avay, but in the presence of his open victor he stands 
with admiration. In the language of the playground, he is a 
good sport. Besides, he stands for fair play and despises double 
dealing. He has his jjeccadillos in plenty, but he has a whole- 
some respect for the finer things of life. He is quick to recognize 
a true friend, and just as quick to detect a hypocrite. 

3. Up to this time the term hoy has been used. This was for 
mere convenience. Most of the characteristics mentioned belong 
alike to the boy and the girl. In addition to these there are some 
characteristics of the girl radically different from those in 
common with the boy. For instance, the girl of this age is more 
emotional than the boy. High school teachers sometimes fail 
in their management, because they forget that boys and girls are 
as unlike in their natures as in their bodies. A co-educational 
high school is more difficult to control than a school attended by 
only one sex. For this reason, if for no other, wiienever a high 
school becomes large enough to justify the additional expense, 
it ought to be divided into a school for each sex. 

•i. One can breathe a little more freely since the eugenic craze 
of a few years ago has somewhat subsided. The matter of sex in 
education has its vexatious questions, and I am frank to say that 
I doubt my ability to discuss them helpfully. However, I feel 
safe in offering at least one suggestion. About the time the girl 
enters the high school she is also entering the most critical period 
of her physical life. Her wdiole being is undergoing radical 
change. More than at any other time in her life she needs to 
conserve every particle of her vitality. At the very moment when 
the young girl most needs to husband her strength she is often 
set to the most difficult tasks of her entire school life. In visit- 
ing schools I have often been astonished at the high tension at 
which some teachers work girls at this age. Even women 
teachei-s often seem as indifferent, or as ignorant, as men teachers. 
Ambitious and thoughtless teachers and parents put young 
girls into the high school and drive them almost with whip and 



32 

• 
spur to keep up with, or ahead of, the brawniest boy in school. 
Headaches, flushed cheeks, dizziness, even tears, are blindly dis- 
regarded in the wild drive for grades and standing and diplomas. 
Does it pay to burn out the vitality of the body for the tempo- 
rary benefit of the brain? Is a nervous wreck to be chosen 
as the price of an education? A little care at the proper time 
will avert serious disaster. 

5. It must not be concluded that all high school pupils are 
paragons. It must not be thought that all are fit material to be 
worked up into fine products. The blunt truth is, there are a 
good many boys and girls naturally bad, or are made so by 
their environment before the high school gets them. There are 
vicious boys and girls, there are liars, there are rogues, there are 
fomenters of discord, there are gangsters, there are ward poli- 
ticians in the i)upa stage, there are gutter snipes, and a few others. 
Any teacher so gullible as to subscribe to the pious cant about 
there being no such thing as a bad boy or a bad girl needs a 
guardian. But, because there are bad boys and bad girls, and 
because they seem unpromising material, the high school teacher 
must not give them up without a supreme effort to save them. So- 
ciet}'- demands their being saved, if possible. Some of them can 
be reformed, some can be remolded, some of them can be softened, 
and some can be deflected from their course. Whatever is done 
for them will make the State that much better and safer. These 
are the pupils that test teachers. Anybody can teach a whole- 
some boy of good mind, in good health, with favorable environ- 
ment, and with a desire to learn. Almost anybody could quickly 
make for himself a reputation as a teacher, if he had none but 
model pupils. Try yourself on the unpromising material. 

6. No nmtter how bad a pupil may be, he is entitled to an 
opportunity to attend school and to get out of it all he can. 
But he has no right, inherent or otherwise, to demand attendance 
at school, unless he is amenable to reasonable authority and con- 
ducts himself in a becoming manner. Much silly sentimentalism 
has been said and written about every pupil's having a right to 
attend school, and the great injustice done him and his family 
when he is denied the right of attendance. The good pupils of 
the school have rights which ought to be respected. They are 
entitled to protection, just as the bad ones are entitled to a chance. 
Whenever a pupil in school refuses to conduct himself in a decent 
manner, or defies the authority of the school and the good will 



33 

of his fellows, or becomes a nuisance and a hindrance to others, 
the school should dismiss him without delay. A derelict is a 
constant menace to all the other craft that come near it. 

GETTIXG PUPILS TO STUDY. 

1. In the final slock taking, all other tasks of the teacher 
are minor ones in comparison with getting pupils to study. The 
teacher must stand or fall by that crucial test. Anybody can 
teach the pupil with the ability and the willingness to learn, but 
to teach the unwilling pupil and the indifferent one puts the 
teacher to the test. From time to time all manner of devices 
have been tried in the schools to induce, persuade, or compel 
pupils to study. One of the oldest de^-ices-is the use of the rod, 
and for a long time it was used generously. In fact, it was the 
panacea for all school ills. The insolent pupil and the dull pupil 
were both liberally flogged to put them into the straight and 
narrow path and to keep them there. The trouble was the lack 
of judgment in applying the remedy. Insolence and indif- 
ference to books might both be diseases, but it is doubtfid if a 
discriminating physician would prescribe the same remedy for 
both. This abuse of the rod brought about a revolt against it 
a few years ago. The revolt was so pronounced that its use 
came to be regarded as a remnant of barbarism, and Solomon's 
Avisdom was thrown out of court. A revolt against any extreme 
is almost certain to be followed by some other extreme. So it 
was here. Moral suasion became the talisman in the school and 
in the home. Teachers and parents no longer commanded child- 
ren to do anything; they requested them instead. Eecognized 
authority stands behind obedience. Hence, these requests were 
often treated lightly and sometimes ignored. Teachers and 
parents could not quite afford to be disobeyed, therefore their 
requests would be modified or withdrawn. "And it remaineth 
thus until this day." Moral suasion, in practice, often seems to 
mean carefully ascertaining what a child is willing to do and 
when he is ready to do it, then requesting him to do it. You 
must in regard to study and to conduct is at a discount. 

2. Interest is a powerful incentive to anything. However, 
soft pedagogy perverts the doctrine of interest into making 
everyihing attractive and easy to be done. All knotty questions 
and intricate difficulties must have some kind of glamour thrown 
around them by making them inviting. Now, interest that is 



34 

artificial is short-lived. An individual has a real and permanent 
interest in anything that he is mastering, provided it is worth 
the effort. Study that is sugar-coated and given in small pellets 
may for a time serve a purpose, but if the study is worth while, 
it will require some hard work, and there is no use trying to 
disguise the fact. Men and women all through life must do 
things they dislike, and there is good reason to believe that their 
fiber' is toughened thereby. Boys and girls who never do any 
difficult and distasteful tasks are flabby. To verify this state- 
ment look around you. '"In the &"weat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread" is even more pitiless in the intellectual world than in the 
physical world. 

3. Grading pupils by percentages, or their equivalents, as an 
incentive to study arid conduct has long been used almost uni- 
versally in the schools. The first difficulty about grading is that 
it is mechanical, theoretical, and arbitrar}^ Grading might work 
admirabl}?^ as an incentive and a coiTective, if we knew just 
what to gi^^ade, just how to value study and conduct in figures, 
and if high school pupils had any serious faith in our figures. 
At best, grading is a relative matter and a matter of judgment. 
The grade a teacher gives his pupils in study depends too nnicli 
on the condition of the teacher's liver at grading time. Tlie 
next difficulty about grading is that a given grade does not have 
anything like a universal meaning. The grade 80 per cent, may 
mean six different things to as many people. The more any 
teacher swears by his gi'ade book, the less are the delicate dis- 
tinctions in his grading to be trusted. Records are necessary, 
and some kind of grading is a part of the record. But teachers 
are advised not to depend upon grading as a wholesome incentive 
to high school pupils. If you are skeptical, find out in a quiet 
way what your robust boys and girls really think of the re- 
liability and worth of grade books. 

4. Prizes and medals are freely, if not lavishly, given in some 
schools. Teachers are ad\nsed to use the greatest caution in 
offering either a prize or a medal. It may have a wholesome 
effect or a disastrous one. The purpose of a prize of any kind 
is to lead the pupil to real effort and not a mere appeal to his 
natural talent. A pupil of talent or ambition needs no such in- 
centive. If the medal or the prize serves as an unnecessary and 
unnatural incentive to the pupil, it were better not to offer it. 
If it serves to discourage the less gifted pupil, it is harmful. 



35 

A^'herever the offering- of a prize leads to dishonesty untold in- 
jury has been done. On the other hand, if the prize can be 
made to stimulate the gifted but lazy pupil, or bring the pupil 
to discover himself and to develop his talent, it serves a worthy 
])urpose. Pnzes should be offered to groups of pupils rather 
than to individual pupils, and should l>e given for positive stand- 
ards of attainments rather than for relative standards. 

."). In many schools honor rolls are used as incentives, but 
there is room for suspicion that honor rolls are coming to be 
used to exploit schools and teachers as much as incentives to 
pupils. The honor roll may be made up of the names of a 
certain number of pupils standing highest. To this plan there 
are tAvo serious objections: 1. In the very nature of the sit- 
uation the weaker pupils are proscribed, and the unambitious 
uninfluenced. "J. The standing of the pupil next below the last 
name on the honor roll may be such as to stig:matize the dis- 
tinction as ludicrous. Another method of making up honor 
rolls is to put on them the names of all the pupils who make a 
given minimum grade or above it. This method is safer than the 
first mentioned, but it is open to the same objections. In short, 
the elemental weakness in all hofior roll schemes goes back to 
the primary question of all grading, namely, what is the teacher 
grading, and how does he arrive at his figures? I regi-et to say 
that I once used honor rolls. I do not think I would do so now. 

(>. One of the latest so-called incentive fads in captivity is 
the perversion and prostitution of genuine and salutary home- 
school cooperation by the school's crediting pupils with splitting 
wood, feeding the chickens, washing the dishes, and dressing the 
baby — all at home. It would require a genius in manipulating 
a grade book to give the proper credit to a boy on his school 
algebra for killing potato bugs in the garden at home. Some 
one may think I am attempting' satire by introducing fictitious 
credits. Every credit here mentioned and twenty more of the 
same brand may be found in the magazine articles and books 
advocating school credits for home work. The closest possible 
cooperation between the school and the home should be culti- 
vated, but this new fad ignores two important things: 1. That 
the school and the home are distinct institutional units, and that 
while their functions are mutually helpful they are not inter- 
changeable. The school should supplement the home as far as 
possil)]e, but for the school to undertake to take over the preroga- 



36 

tives and the functions of the home is nnwise. The home is 
God-made; the school is man-made. 2. That it is absurd to 
credit a pupil in one field of endeavor for Avork done in another 
field. The teacher of English assigns home study for his pupils. 
The home cooperates with the teacher by requiring the study to 
be done. The teacher credits the pupils with all the work done 
in English, at school and at home, but the credits are confined 
to English. Besides, the teacher asks for no certificate from 
home as to the work done there. Instead he makes his own tests 
to satisfy himself. The teacher of physics or of agriculture 
properly credits a pupil for every particle of the home project 
work he does, but the teacher sees the work for himself and satis- 
fies himself that the pupil did the work. However, the English 
teacher could not consistently credit a pupil on his English for 
his work in physics, to say nothing of dressing the baby at home. 
A sensible teacher of physics avouIcI be slow to credit a toy on his 
physics for feeding the chickens at home. The home-credit en- 
thusiast, like most other enthusiasts, at once became a fanatic, 
and his fanaticism has led him astray. The correlation of kin- 
dred subjects in school is world-old. It is sound to the core. 
But a few years ago a few teachers became so fanatical in ad- 
vocating correlation that they did untold harm to the very thing 
they attempted to strengthen. Resourceful teachers for long 
years had known that in Robinson Crusoe there Avas more than a 
simple story of a lone man on a lone island, and they Avere cor- 
relating that story with other things. But the correlation fa- 
natic Avas not content Avith that. He insisted that Ave might take 
that one story and teach reading, gTammar. composition, litera- 
ture, geography, commerce, history, sociolog}', mythology — I for- 
get the others. Teachers, beware of the educational hobby-rider. 
He means Avell, but he is unsafe. 

7. There remains to be mentioned one more incentive to 
study, one that is as old as education itself, the personal super- 
vision of study by the teacher. We learn to do by doing is a 
laconic educational maxim much used. The maxim is incomplete 
We learn to do hy doing under guidance is the Avay that the 
lovable and philosophical Dr. Emerson E. White used to express 
it. EA^ery one Avill agi'ee that a pupil ought to be thrown upon 
his own resources as far as it is possible without loss or injury 
to him. A pupil ninst in the end learn to depend upon himself, 
but there are times Avhen he needs guidance to preA'ent Avaste. 



37 

One of the chief tasks of the high school is to teach pupils how 
to stiicl,y. At that age very few have learned hoAv, Many a 
pupil of reasonable ability and ambition has failed measurably, 
if not completely, to grasp the essentials of a lesson assignment, 
because he did not know where or how to attack it. A sug- 
gestion, a hint, or a word at the proper moment would have 
saved the day. There are fewer pupils unwilling to study than 
there are ignorant of how to study. 

Under our present school organization in America the school 
day is almost entirely given over to recitations of the American 
type, and the teachers are heavily burdened with recitations. Far 
more than one-half the high school teachers are on recitation 
every period in the day. A good many others have one vacant 
period a day, and a very few have from six to ten vacant periods 
a week. Those with no vacant periods during the school day are 
shut off from: the opportunity of teaching pupils how to study, 
except in an incidental way on the recitation. Those who have 
one vacant period a day have some opportunity to guide pupils 
in their study. How shall the period be used? It is to be feared 
that a few teachers simply give the pupils instruction to study 
wliile the teachers sit at their desks. In even this there is some 
little benefit. It is worth something to pupils to acquire the habit 
of doing some study at a definite period every day, especially if 
the pupils are required to study a certain subject at that time. 
Some teachers have a regular schedule of study for that vacant 
|>eriod, that is, the entire class knows beforehand what subject 
is to be studied at that period. By this plan a class has the 
opportunity to give one period of study each Aveek to each of his 
subjects under the guidance of a teacher. 

At school the pupils labor under the same clifRculty under 
which the teacher labors. The pupils are on recitation the larger 
part of the day under our present organization, but they usually 
have more vacant periods than the teacher. Hence, some of the 
vacant periods of the pupils must be used without the guidance 
of the teacher. Here is where the waste is mostly found. The 
pupils too often spend the time in a species of mental vagrancy. 

From all this it is evident that high school pupils must de- 
pend almost entirely upon home study for the preparation of 
their work. Xow, what are the home conditions? Are they 
favorable to study? In the first place, young pupils must have 
quiet in order to studj^ How many homes offer this quiet? 



38 

ISIost pupils must sit around the family fireside to do Avhat study 
they can. During the winter months it is imperative. All the 
gossip of the day is recited in their presence while they pretend 
to study. Evening visitors and perhaps a crying baby add to 
the burlesque called home study. Moreover we must not forget 
that these pupils frequently need assistance. In many a home 
of hard-working, sacrificing, honorable parents there is not a 
person able to assist a high school pupil in need of it. What is 
the pupil to do? What can he do? Again, there are homes 
where the parents can assist high school pupils, but do they do it 
wisely ? Instead of wise guidance to the pupil the parents too 
frequently do the pupil's work for him. Verily, and sometimes 
that work is incorrect. Then serious difficulty is imminent. 

More study in school under the immediate eye and direction 
of the teacher seems to be the best solution of the whole problem. 
This by no means is to be taken as a suggestion for less home 
study. It means more effective home study. Supervised study, 
as it is coming to be called, has in it several elements of decided 
merit. 1. It offers the most favorable conditions for study ; '2. 
The teacher assigns definite work with definite directions for it. 
and gives the necessary guidance in doing it ; 8. The study of 
assignments occupies as definite place in the daily schedule as 
the recitations; 4. Pupils are kept at work at definite tasks at 
specific times and for definite periods; 5. Pupils learn to study 
systematically ; 0. Pupils are not only guided in their study 
but their thinking power is being tested by the teacher at every 
step; 7. Day by day the horizon of the pupils is being en- 
larged. 

There are several methods of conducting supervised study. 
The one that appeals to this Avriter as the best he knows is here 
very briefly described. Instead of setting apart a certain period 
or a certain hour each day for supervised study alone, that time 
is distributed by adding it to the regular schedule periods. In 
schools normally running on 45-minute periods these recitations 
would be extended to 55 or 60 minutes each. The recitation of 
the usual lesson assignment is given 35 to 40 minutes. At the 
expiration of that time, without any break in the work, the 
entire class attacks the next assignment under the immediate 
eye and direction of the teacher, and continues this until the end 
of the 60-minute period. The next day the teacher will begin 
the recitation perhaps just where the subject was attacked the 



39 

day previous, make his tests on the new assignment, and again 
adv^ance beyond the assignment. To illustrate : Let us suppose 
that the algebra class is just finishing Chapter V of the State 
adopted text. Chapter VI introduces a new subject. Linear 
Equations. The 20 minutes allotted for super\dsed study would 
be given to a veiy careful study and explanation of the new 
terms and the new processes. The class would leaA^e the recita- 
tion with at least a fair understanding of what the new assign- 
ment is about. Again, let us suppose the class is just finishing 
page 50 of the same text. Something entirely new to the pupils 
looms up on the next page — Problems. They have solved 
similar problems in arithmetic, but here they must be solved 
algebraically, and it is highly necessary that the pupils shall 
approach the work properly. Again, suppose the class to-day 
finishes Book II of Caesar's Gallic War. and the next assign- 
ment begins with Book III. L^nless some guidance is given the 
average class, it will fail to grasp the situation at the opening of 
Book III. Without some guidance the mere translation of some 
Latin sentences will likely be taken as the object of the assign- 
ment. Even in the miatter of translation some definite guidance 
is helpful, if not necessary^ The very first chapter opens with 
the word cum: At what point in reading the sentence (not in 
translating it) should the pupil be able to discover the part of 
speech to which (-um belongs? In the same way when is he able 
to tell if the word is to be translated when, while, since, as or 
although^ It is in such matters as these that the high school 
pupil needs the wise guidance of the teacher. The teacher is 
not to do the work for the pupil, but he is to discover the power 
and the weakness of each pupil and to render just such guidance 
as each needs. 

Perhaps the best single volume on this subject is Hall-Quesfs 
Supervised Study. Macmillan. 

THE HIGH SCHOOL RECITATION. 

1. The high school recitation has somewhat aptly been called 
a tilting match between the teacher and his class. In the field 
of elementary dialectics this definition is fitting. The pupils in 
the class discussions with the teacher and with each other have 
their wits sharpened, they learn to use their reasoning powers 
and their judgment, they learn the difference between argument 
and sophistry, they come to know when a thing has been de- 



40 

nionstrated, and they learn to be logical in a demonstration. 
However, the recitation is much more than a mere tilting match. 
It is the place to Avhich they come to have the chaff winnowed 
from the wheat they have gathered, or to have the dross melted 
out of the metal they have mined. Here the teacher rises above 
the plane of a mere fellow combatant in a passage at arms. He 
becomes the expounder of truth and the high priest of its temple. 
This is high and enviable ground, and not every teacher rises to 
it. Yet, there is even higher ground to which a few choice 
teachers rise. The pinnacle has been reached when the teacher 
rises to the height of inspiration, and reveals to his class the holy 
of holies in the realm of spirit. Then it is that the pupils feel 
like taking off their shoes, because they are on holy ground, 

'2. Before scaling the heights we must first traverse the foot- 
hills at the base. We do not often ascend to the heights, but we 
can go occasionally after we have learned the way. So in the 
recitation. We do not frequently rise to the sublime heights 
Avhere we become an inspiration, but if we do the ordinary teach- 
ing in a thorough manner we may occasionally rise above the 
common-place. 

3. The opening remark of the teacher at the beginning of a 
recitation often sets the standard for the period. Do your ut- 
most to begin well. A frivolous remark at the beginning of a 
recitation on a serious topic, or an undue solemnity injected into 
the study of a light and cheery topic, may badly mar what other- 
wise might have been a successful recitation. Successful teach- 
ing depends very largely upon the attitude of mind the pupils 
bring' to the recitation. If pupils all came to the recitation with 
the right attitude, teaching avouIcI be comparatively easy. Hoav- 
eA'er, to create this attitude is a part of the teacher's taslc. 

4. On the lesson assigTiment largely depends the character of 
the recitation. The assignment should be made with care. It 
should be done in such way as to let the class understand what it 
is expected to do by w^ay of preparation for the recitation. If 
left without suggestion or guidance, pupils often have but a 
vague idea as to wdiat they are expected to do. High school 
pupils are not prepared to take up a book or a lesson and grasp 
the content without some guidance. If they were able to do so, 
they hardly need to go to school to study successfully. To close 
a recitation by saying, "Take the next section," or "the next 
page," is not the mark of a good teacher. Frequently teachers, 



41 

in a commendable effort to give due care to the assignment, make 
it at the opening of the recitation period. This may be a serious 
mistake. It ma}^ be that today's recitation leads immediately up 
to what the teacher wishes the class to undertake for the first 
time. In that case, the best time to make the assignment would 
be at the close of the recitation. The purpose of the assignment 
would then be clearer to the pupils. Be sure to take ample time 
to make assignment. 

5. As soon as you have tested your pupils on what you as- 
signed them to do, you have an excellent opportunity to observe 
how your pupils think, by ascertaining what they can do wdth 
their new acquisitions. How can they correlate the new ac- 
quisitions with related things they had previously learned? 
Some will quickly see the previous in the light of the new, and 
the new in the light of the previous. Others will see no relation- 
ship at all. You must teach such pupils. Your next step is to 
start the class, under guidance, in some definite channel of 
thought or application or experiment. The guidance mentioned 
is to insure against loss of time in useless digressions and in ex- 
ploring unfruitful by-paths. Every discovery or conclusion 
your pupils make you want to manage to bring back and tie it 
up W'ith some previous discover}^, conclusion, or hypothesis. All 
this requires time. You will need every second of your 45-minute 
recitation period. You can here appreciate the futility of try- 
ing to teach a high school recitation in 20 minutes, as the little 
make-believe high school does. 

6. Skillful questioning is indeed a fine art. Not every 
teacher possesses it, but every one can attain reasonable pro- 
ficiency in it by diligent cultivation. Eapid-fire questioning 
seems to be the goal in the mind of man}". Such questioning 
may be well enough, if you are sure that j'our questions are well 
selected and the order of asking them is logical. Any kind of 
rapid-fire weapon is dangerous, except in the hand of a skillful 
marksman. Besides, the best questions are those wdiich produce 
serious thought, and serious thought requires time. Do not do 
all the talking or all the thinking during the recitation. Give 
the pupils a chance. Make it your study to ask none but well- 
thought-out, well connected, and well stated questions ; give your 
pupils reasonable time to think, then insist on direct and well 
expressed answers. Here is your golden opportunity to teach 
language as a necessary vehicle of thought. In the high school 



42 

do not Avaste time having simple answers to simple questions 
answered in complete sentences. You are not teaching primary'' 
childreji. If yon ask a series of logically connected questions 
in developing any topic, you have suggested to your class the 
process of thinking in arriving at a conclusion. Rambling and 
disconnected questions never make logical pupils. Sir William 
Hamilton was accustomed to tell his pupils that they did not 
come to him to learn logic but to learn to be logical. Further- 
more, your questions ought to aid your pupils in determining the 
relative worth of the facts recorded in the textbooks. 

T. With reasonable safety a careful observer can form an es- 
timate of a teacher by his questioning on a recitation. In 
Moore's What is Ediwationf is recorded the following highly 
suggestive incident: 

"I once entered a classroom while the class Avas engaged upon 
that passage of the oration for Archias in which Cicero attempts 
to make the thoughts of his auditors rise to the nature of the 
poet's mission. To do this he refers to 'our Ennius,' the author 
of the Annals, the father of Latin poetry, 'who calls the poets 
lioh^, for they seem, as it were, to be approved to us b}' special 
gift and favor of the gods.' This is a tremendous saying, and 
I Avaited Avith eagerness to hear Avhat sort of question the teacher 
Avould ask on such a passage. It came, 'AVhy is vkleantw in the 
subjimctive mood V '' 

Miscellaneous Suggestions. 

1. At the outset make up your mind that you are going to suc- 
ceed. Resolve to master the subject matter, then decide on the 
best way in Avhich a'ou can present it to your pupils. Here is 
Avhere your individuality comes into play. Learn all you can 
from books and teachers as to methods of teaching, but adopt 
that method in wdiich you can make yourself at home. 

2. Remember that in teaching you must have direct dealings 
with people as Avell as pupils. You must deal Avith parents, the 
school board, the friends of the school, and in most instances 
other teachers. Be frank, cordial, dignified, and sincere Avith 
all. Frankness does not mean rudeness, abruptness or incivil- 
ity; cordiality does not imply servility; dignity and stiffness are 
not synonymous; sincerity is the flower of simplicity. 

3. Use common sense and discretion in eA^erything you under- 
take. Do not undertake impossible things. Avoid being rash 



43 

or impetuous in anything. Do not undertake more work than 
good average teachers have found enough. You may be a better 
teacher than the average, but your equal can be found some- 
where. Be guided by the judgment and experience of your 
equals. Teachers of extravagant notions soon come to be dis- 
counted. Do not tiy to make people believe that you have some 
patented process by Avhich you can accomplish more than other 
teachers. Teachers or schools arrogating to themselves ex- 
travagant claims of superiority usually discover that well in- 
formed people do not take them seriously. The teacher who car- 
ries his classes over more literature than good teachers attempt, 
or has his classes to read more Latin than an old Roman would 
have done, or ''completes'' any book or subject within about 
half the time the average teacher gives it. soon falls into dis- 
repute with sober-minded people. 

4. Eemember that there is a limit to the endurance of a 
teacher and of a class of pupils. A fatigued brain refuses to be 
clear and alert. Xo teacher can do high-class work uninter- 
ruptedly for five hours. There ought to be some relief, either 
a rest or a change of work. The supervised study already 
mentioned offers relief. It is exceedingly unfortunate to be 
compelled to teach e^ery period in the school day without some 
kind of relaxation. Pupils are no better fitted to study five 
hours a day without relaxation than are teachers to teach. Their 
minds become sluggish and dull, if overworked. Occasionally a 
principal of an iron constitution imposes upon his teachers 
and his pupils by making them keep pace with him. Such a 
person might learn a Avholesome lesson if he would occasionally 
try conclusions with a i)rofessional wrestler or with some pugilist. 
Only Hercules could wield Hercules' club. 

T). One of the Aveaknesses of our schools is the overloading 
of pupils with studies. I do not mean that the pupils do too 
much study, but that they are required to study too many things 
at one time. A mistaken notion as to the meaning of the en- 
richment of the program of studies is responsible for the j^resent 
situation. Variety in study, as in other things, is desirable, but 
when the variety itself becomes burdensome it is highly unde- 
sirable. A few subjects well chosen and pursued vigorously 
will" give far better results than a large nmnber of subjects half- 
learned and half-taught. The trend of opinion among the most 
thoughtful educators is decidedly toward four major subjects 



44 

at a time in the high schooh Those in the best position to 
judge tell ns frankly that most of our high school pupils haA'e 
a smattering of a good many subjects, but that they have mas- 
tered none, Principals and teachers are chiefly responsible for 
this. It can hardly be laid to the door of the pupils. 

6. If your Avork is in some 3-year high school, do not try to 
parallel or duplicate the corresponding work in some 4-year 
school. Do not be so foolish as to try to make your 3-year high 
school do as much work as is done in any good 4-year school. 
Please bear in mind Avhat disaster overtook Aesop's frog when it 
tried to make itself as big as the ox. You may rush your pupils 
over more work than other teachers as good as yourself may do, 
and for a time everything may seem to go well, but rest assured 
that in due time your mistake will be found out. There is no 
royal road to learning, nor is there any magic method of teach- 
ing. 

7. In your program of studies make some provision for tak- 
ing care alike of the normal pupil, the super-normal pupil, and 
the sub-normal pupil. The school does not exist for any single 
one of these. Each is entitled to the best that the school can 
do for him. Do not be afraid to break away from indefensible 
tradition which required every pupil to take the same amount 
of work, regardless of whether the pupil is strong or frail, 
vigorous or indisposed, brilliant or slow and plodding. It is 
better to gi^'e a vigorous and capable pupil five major subjects 
a year than to have him mark time with a class carrying four 
subjects. Is it better to permit a sickly or a slow pupil to carry 
three subjects a year and stand well in these, or to require him 
to carry the alloted four with such ill success as to drive him out 
of school? However, do not fall a victim to the common fallacy 
of declaring that all your pupils are brilliant as an excuse for 
giving them too many subjects. 

8. Although there is strong argument favoring one teacher's 
teaching all the subjects to a given class, the weight of argument 
seems to favor departmental teaching in the high school. AVliere 
one teacher teaches the same class English, Latin, and history, 
or mathematics and science, the natural correlation of subjects 
can be more easily made. On the other hand, the English, or 
Latin, or the history is better correlated through the entire school 
under the departmental plan. The teacher of a single high school 
subject stands in considerable danger of becoming narrow and 



45 

isolated in his thought range. To counterbalance this is the fact 
that very few teachers are equipped to teach equally well more 
than two or three high school subjects. A teacher may be strong 
m one or two subjects but relatively weak in othei^s. Principals 
are usually Avary about employing high school teachers Avho 
claim to be equally Avell prepared to teach a half dozen or more 
subjects. However, there is one danger that must be carefully 
avoided in departmental teaching — the danger of over-working" 
pupils as the result of each teacher's unduly emphasizing his 
subject. Should the English teacher unduly emphasize his sub- 
ject, the mathematics teacher unduly stress his, the Latin teacher 
forget that his pupils have any other than his subject, the pupils 
are in danger of being overworked. 

9. To get the best returns from school work, as from ordinary 
business, it is necessary to provide against as much waste as 
possible. What ought to be a profitable business is often a com- 
parative failure, simply because the waste eats up the profits. 
Schools are not exceptions. Lack of promptness will soon dis- 
organize any school. The teacher who bustles into his place five 
minutes behind the time he is scheduled to be in place has made 
a bad beginning for the day. Be in your place on the minute. 
You can not expect others to be prompt, unless you are prompt. 

10. Make a workable daily schedule of recitations and follow 
it religiously. If the one you have is not good enough to follow 
in this manner, make one that is. A good daily schedule is as 
necessary to a school as to a railroad, and for the same reason. 
It is a protection against wrecks. To conduct recitations in any 
other than a scheduled way is certain to end in confusion, if not 
failure. When the time comes for the recitation, begin. When 
the time comes for it to close, stop. You have no more right 
to be tardy Avith your pupils than they have to be tardy with 
you, nor have j^ou any more right to be tardy in closing a reci- 
tation than you have in opening it. You have no right to rob 
a class of one minute at the beginning of the recitation, nor 
have you any more right to rob it of its time after the time for 
closing the recitation. The same principle is true as to recesses 
and closing at the end of the day. It is Avell enough to invite 
a class to remain with you after school for assistance, but to hold 
a class arbitrarily beyond the schedule time, because you happen 
to be interested or think the pupils needs more attention, is not 
advisable. Besides, Avhat apology can you make to the succeed- 



46 

ing class whose time you are taking unjustly? All this has noth- 
ing to do with detaining pupils after schedule hours to study 
neglected lessons, 

11. Do not consume time with useless signals, but require 
that necessary signals be obeyed promptly. Do not make the 
mistake of banging on a bell or of counting for pupils to do 
everything but breathe. Wherever two or more people are as- 
sembled there must be some little formalities not necessaiy to 
any one when alone, but reduce your formalities to a minimum. 

12. Do not waste time sending a pupil to a blackboard to 
scribble or to scrawl for five minutes writing what he ought 
to tell you and the class in less than one minute. And do not 
make the mistake of sending six or eight pupils to the black- 
boards to work on as many different problems or exercises, when 
the wdiole class is interested in each problem, or ought to be, 
except for mere practice. 

13. Do not waste time having pupils unnecessarily copying 
anything from blackboards into note books. Blackboards and 
note books are excellent helps in teaching, if they are proper]}^ 
used. When misused or over-used both are hindrances. Thous- 
ands of hours are wasted by pupils copying useless matter into 
note books. Putting a whole class to copying from a black- 
board is a device of a lazy or unprepared teacher to avoid a 
recitation, and it is a crutch upon Avhich the ignorant teacher 
leans.' Before giving a class anything to be copied, be sure that 
it is worth while, and that the jiupils are going to get the worth 
of it. There is absolutely no other school exercises less inspiring 
or more dulling to pupils than the constant copying of all kinds 
of matter into note books. I have known reputable high school 
teachers to require their classes to spend hours during the year 
copying into note books matter contained in books which w^ere 
accessible to every member of the classes. This is little short 
of an outrage. A note book ceases to be a note book when it 
becomes a transcript book. A note book is a book of mere in- 
telligible jottings, or headings, or comiments to aid the memoiy 
in recalling certain data, occurrences, or references. 

14. It is fascinatingly easy to waste time having history 
pupils trace maps or fill in outline maps. Stop long enough to 
find out just what benefit your pupils are to derive from this 
fascinating exercise before you require it. What has a pupil 
gained from tracing or filling in an inferior map. when he has 



47 

an accurate map on the wall of the schoolroom or in his text- 
book? Instead of this waste of valuable time teach pupils how 
to read or interpret a map, whether historical, political, or com- 
mercial. 

15. The dictionary habit is a good one for pupils to form, 
and the library habit is good. You need to cultivate in your 
pu]3ils both habits. However, I would not advise you to send a 
class or a pupil to the library to look up some insignificant in- 
formation which you could easily give in one minute. Life is 
too short and time is too valuable. 

1(5. The better your teaching the less need you have for 
formal examinations and written tests. Teach only such things 
as have some real value to your pupils at their present stage of 
advancement. Do not waste your time and theirs teaching them 
something Avhich miay be of value to them two or three years 
hence. Wait until that time arrives. When you have taught a 
useful thing use it frequently enough to make it the common 
possession of the class. Every pupil ought to be taught how to 
marshal his knowledge of any subject in good order on paper, 
but one pities the class that must be formally tested or examined 
evei"y four or six weeks. 

17. Do you ever find yourself correcting over and over certain 
mistakes of certain pupils or groups of pupils? If so, what is 
the reason? Think this over. Mere repetition does not in- 
variably bring results. 

• 18. Not a few pedagogical crimes are connnitted in the 
name of thoroughness. Do not wear a subject threadbare by 
droning over it to the disgust of even your best pupils. On the 
other hand, do not skim through a subject touching it in only 
high places, depending upon reviewing it. Pupils soon come to 
expect all subjects to be reviewed, and never take any subject 
seriously. To go over the same book or subject several tinier 
invites the habit of careless study. Train pupils to master a 
subject as they go. Let them understand that they are expected 
to do a thing thoroughly, if the thing is worth doing. 

19, Few things serve a teacher better than the ability to take 
an accurate measurement of himself. Fortunate is the one who 
knows his capacity and his possibilities, and knows equally well 
his limitations and his weaknesses. This knowledge is his anchor 
when he is tempted to undertake impossible things, or when he 
is tempted to apply for or to accept a position beyond his ability 



48 

to fill. A high-class teacher or principal or superintendent 
mig-ht easily find a position whose demands he could not fill. 
It does his judgment and good sense credit for him to admit it 
frankly. 

20. This is an era of big things. .Almost everything little 
has fallen into disrepute. The reputable college apes the great 
university, the little college apes the big college, the city high 
school must follow in the steps of the college, and the village high 
school in some things seems to try to outdo the college. Few 
things in the experience of a school man trj his patience more 
than the gTandiloquent performances of some little high schools 
under the spell of a pompously inclined teacher or principal. 
AYhen one hears high school pupils referred to as juniors and 
seniors, learns that these pupils are lectured to, that they do re- 
search Avork, and prepare reports on investigations, he longs 
for a return to the good old days of pioneer simplicity. 

21. I Avould urge teachers to avoid all manner of extremes. 
Do not subject yourselves to being regarded as odd, fanatical, 
or what is vulgarly called a crank or a faddist. Do not ride a 
hobby. Wlienever a teacher gets on a hobby, takes up some fad, 
or becomes a monomaniac of any kind, he at once loses his in- 
fluence among thinking people, and even his wisdom is ac- 
counted unto him as some wliimsicality. 

22. Teachers, do not permit yourselves to get into a rut. 
Do not think that the last word has been uttered on any sub- 
ject, and that you have learned that word. Keep your eyes 
open and your mind open to things that are slowly being re- 
A'-ealed to us through research, investigation, experiment, and 
patient toil. Listen to all that is reasonable, test everything 
before adopting it, accept a new thing if it proves worthy. Keep 
your heart warm by keeping in sympathy with adolescence. Red- 
blooded, vivacious, romping, impetuous, but strong and open- 
minded boys and girls need your sympathy and are worthy of 
it. They are the best a.sset the world will ever know. 

ENGLISH. 

It would seem scarcely necessary to offer any argument for a 
diligent study of English throughout the full term of four years 
m an American high school. Yet, a respectable number of 
reputable teachers have advocated the teaching of the essentials 
of English through some foreign language, especially the Latin. 



49 

Even now a school visitor frequently hears English teachers re- 
ferring pupils to their Latin in matters of English syntax and 
parts of speech. Xot a few other teachers neglect the system- 
atic study of English, depending upon their pupils vicariously 
absorbing a knowledge of English through their reading and 
their study of other school subjects. However, the indisputable 
value of a painstaking study of the mother-speech has taken per- 
manent hold upon the minds of almost all thoughtful teachers 
and laymen. 

Xo other high school subject is richer in content and dis- 
ciplinary value. It is doubtful if any other language, living or 
dead, contains more of the world's best thought and richest 
experiences. The treasures of history, biography, science, philo- 
sophy, art, and pure literature are the reward of the earnest 
student of English. Its content is a mine of wealth. Besides, 
its richness of vocabulary, variety of diction, and flexibility of 
syntax combine to nuike the study of English inferior to that 
of no other langmige as a disciplinary subject. Prof. F. C. 
Woodward boldly declares, "E^nglish asks no odds of the classics, 
even in a comparison of respective disciplinary values.'' The 
growth, development, and adaptability of the English language 
are little less than marvelous. English has not hesitated to en- 
rich itself by laying tribute upon the best to be found in all 
other languages, and it has probably therel)y made the nearest 
api^roach to a Avorld language. 

Among those in a position to judge, there is a strong con- 
viction that English in the high school is taught as imsatis- 
factorily as is any other subject. Admittedly there are some 
difficulties in teaching it. A living language is a growing or- 
ganism, continually taking on new words, admitting new idioms, 
and establishing new standards of excellence, and at the same 
time it is continually casting off whatever has become obsolete. 
In all these particulars a living language presents to the teacher 
difficulties not encountered in teaching a dead language, fixed 
in its vocabulary, syntax and standards. Besides, a language 
of as few inflections as the English does not lend itself readily 
to being taught in the same way in which a highly inflected 
language is usually taught. To these difficulties inherent in the 
subject itself must be added the indefinite aim w'hich characterizes 
the work of many high school teachers of English. Aimless 
teaching is fatal to success anvwhere. A close examination of 



50 

many English courses in high schools sets one to guessing as to 
their ultimate object. The selections and their articulation 
show little organic relationship or sequence. Caprice seems to 
be the only guide in constructing these courses. The secondary 
importance heretofore attached to the teaching of English is 
largely responsible for the delay in organizing better courses 
in the subject, and for the lack of better methods of teaching 
it. 

Moreover, the teaching of the vernacular has been further re- 
tarded by a feeling on the part of both teacher and pupil that 
in some way or fashion everyone will manage to make himself 
understood by his fellows. Even teachers seem to fail to ap- 
preciate the fact that language is the vehicle of thought, and 
that the only way by Avhich thought can be accurately and ex- 
actly given by one person and received by another is through a 
fixed medium. A pupil can not make a perfect recitation in 
history, algebra, geometry, or any other subject, unless he uses 
accurate language as to words, syntax, and idiom. Nor can a 
teacher make a perfect presentation of any matter except in ac- 
curate language. Will your school, your class, and your teach- 
ing stand this test? 

I would dislike to say that every teacher in the high school 
should be held directly responsible for the English of the pupils. 
But it is reasonable to say that every teacher is expected to re- 
quire his pupils to make their recitations in all subjects in reas- 
onably accurate standard English. And, since practice is 
superior to precept in teaching, it is not extravagant to say that 
pupils will get as good training in accuracy in speech in the 
geometry recitation as in the English recitation. However, 
whenever the pupil is in doubt in his use of English he must go 
to his court of appeal — his grammar, his dictionary, his com- 
position manual — for authority. On the other hand, the teacher 
of English will meet a Waterloo, if he depends upon overcoming 
the slang of the street, the colloquialisms of the home, and the 
provincialisms of the neighborhood with the rules of grammar 
and rhetoric as his only weapons. 

In chapter II of Chubb 's The Teaching of English^ the author 
discusses some of the difficulties encountered by the schools in 
teaching English. He makes these pointed observations: 

"The fundamental fact to be borne in mind in this connection 
is that good speech is a habit, a point of social manners. It is, 



51 

we urge, too much to expect that the habits enforced for a few 
hours daily in the schoolroom (Saturdays and Sundays and holi- 
days and long vacations excepted) shall prevail against con- 
trary influences affecting the child during the greater part of his 
daily life. Why is it that the average English or German or 
French child speaks and writes his native tongue more correctly 
and pleasantly than the average American child? The principal 
(though not the only) reason is to be found, not in the better 
and more laborious teaching in the schools, but in the higher 
standard of social manners. We lack linguistic conscience and 
linguistic pride in this country. We do not attach to illiteracy 
the stigma that attaches to it abroad — a stigma that money, dress, 
ostentation, can not atone for. Until with us also to be a gen- 
tleman is, as a first essential, to use gentle speech, we shall not 
cure, we shall but cauterize, illiteracy. Hence, it is that, viewed 
in its large aspects, the problem of illiteracy is not so much a 
school jDroblem as a problem of American civilization." 

SPELLING. 

Spelling is one of the fundamentals in the study of English 
in the high school. No amoimt of scholarship as to the other 
factors will fully atone for bad spelling. Bad spelling is 
ignorance in something vital. In many schools spelling above 
the grammar grades is either neglected or poorly taught. A 
writer recently went so far as to say that he had seen many 
teachers testing spelling, but that he had seen few teaching spell- 
ing. It is to be feared that others might justly make the same 
assertion. The general public criticises somewhat harshly the 
high school graduate and the college graduate in the matter of 
spelling. No doubt both are a little weak. How much are the 
schools at fault in the matter? 

In the first place, most of us use inferior material in teaching 
our classes in spelling. Spelling books are to be counted by the 
score, and yet there are comparatively few suited to the real 
teaching of spelling. The lists of words to be spelled are made 
up of three classes: 1. Those which the pupil uses in his spoken 
and written language and long ago learned to spell; 2. Those 
which he is just incorporating into his vocabulary and needs to 
learn to spell ; 3. Those words yet far beyond his vocabulary and 
for whose spelling he has no need at present. Only the second 
named class is suitable material for him now. What need has 



he for the third chiss, or Avhy should he be droning over the first 
dass? We have among' ns a few laymen and an occasional 
teacher who tell us Avith much positiveness that if we would but 
return to the use of a certain s])elling-book of by-gone days, we 
would solve the spelling problem. It did not do so when it was 
in use among us. An examination of that revered book will con- 
vince anyone that more than half of the words in it belong to 
the first and third classes of words with respect to the pupils 
who are supposed to use it with such great profit. 

Every pupil has an "expressional vocabulary" and an "'in- 
terpretational vocabulary."*' One is the vocabulary used by the 
l-upil, and the other is the vocabulary he understands but does 
not yet himself use. As his expressional vocabulary grows, his 
ability to spell its words should grow apace. What need 
has the pupil to learn to spell words he can not use? Why not 
defer the spelling of such words until the time at which he begins 
to need them? Is it not rather poor i)eclagogy to have pui)ils 
spelling words even whose meanings are unknown to them, and 
to neglect to teach them to spell the words of their every-day vo- 
cabulary ? 

In the next place, is it true that we simply test a i)uinrs 
ability to spell, instead of teaching him to spell? The charge 
is rather serious. Are we guilty? In many high schools I 
have observed about this ])rocedure: A certain group of words 
for the next recitation is assigned without instruction, sug- 
gestion, or comment; the next day these words are given to the 
class to be spelled on tablets; the papers are exchanged and the 
teacher goes through the list spelling each word correctly, while 
each pupil notes all the errors on the paper in his possession ; at 
the end of this performance each pupil calls out the number of 
mis-spelled words on his own paper or on the one in his pos- 
session, while the teacher takes note of the number of mistakes. 
Often the recitation ends here with a similar assignment for the 
following day. 

At this point two pertinent questions arise: 1. What step 
was taken to teach that lesson at the time of its assignment or 
on the recitation? 2. What has been done to insure against 
these same words being misspelled again and again? True, some 
teachers attempt to correct the spelling of these words by re- 
quiring each pupil to write correctly each misspelled Avord ten, 
twentv, and even fiftv times. This repetition will make some 



06 

impression upon the pupil Avho rarely misses a Avord, but with 
the one Avho regularly misses words it is all but worthless as a 
corrective measure. He may write the word correctly fifty 
times at one sitting, but when he comes to write it the fifty- 
first time he is likely to make his old mistake. 

The spelling of English words is not a matter of rule, but a 
familiar knowledge of at lea.st three rules of spelling Avill be of 
untold value to the high school pupil. These are (1) the rule 
for dropping the silent e at the end of a Avord when taking a 
suffix, (2) that for doubling the final consonant of a word Avhen 
taking a suffix, and (3) that for changing the final y into / when 
taking a suffix. Very few of the other rules for spelling are of 
much value to pupils. In some cases the number of exceptions 
to the rules is as great as the number of words covered by the 
rules. In other cases the pupils have difficulty in applying the 
rules. 

Suppose that in the lesson above referred to had been found 
the words continuing^ yeaceahle^ courageous^ greenish^ nharriage^ 
moneys, ccquitting^ equipage, hoxlng, henefted^ whining. In- 
stantly the pupil familiar with the three rules just mentioned 
would have known the spelling of each and the reason for it. 

In teaching such words as 'until\ lose, siege, coarse, cite, 
proper, already^ seize, tyrannical, fiery, and many more like 
these, rules can not be depended upon. How do you teach such 
words? Do you Avait for the pupils to absorb them, or do you de- 
pend on having each one rewritten ten times every times it is mis- 
spelled ? 

As a spelling-book, the dictionary is the poorest book a class 
could adopt. The dictionary is a reference book and not a class 
text. 

EEADIXG. 

The ability to read intelligibly and readily is the very founda- 
tion of thought-getting. Without that ability one is hel])less 
among books. Exceedingly few pupils bring to the high school 
an ability to read that is at all commensurate w-ith their ad- 
vancement in books. Most of them are unable to take in at a 
glance the full mieaning of even a short sentence. Even the 
ability to select quickly the subject and predication out of a 
number of modifiers is beyond many pupils on entering the high 
school, and cA'en later. To all such pupils many of the state- 



54 

ments in history and science have no meaning, because the pupils 
can not grasp the meaning. Problems in mathematics are ob- 
scure to them for the same reason. Whenever a high school 
pupil begins to give evidence that he is failing to grasp the sub- 
ject matter in his textbooks, the teacher should at once take 
steps to see if he can read intelligibly. 

In the schools of today the child spends the greater part of 
the first three years being taught to read. During the next four 
years of his school life so many other subjects are crowded 
upon him that his reading is neglected often to his irreparable 
hurt. By the time the boy reaches the high school he is con- 
firmed in a kind of inflectionless grunting or growling of sen- 
tences for reading, and the girl gives out a monotonous whine 
in a falsetto ke}'. To correct these faults there is but one thing — 
teach reading. To do this requires time, patience, persistence, 
and skill intelligently directed. Pupils must be trained to read 
aloud and to read silently. Let me hasten to say that by train- 
ing to read aloud I do not mean what is usually called elocution. 
Helpless school children need the strong arm of the law to pro- 
tect them against such torture. Corporal punishment is more 
humane. Learning to read, like learning to talk and to sing, 
is vei-y largely a matter of imitation. If a teacher hopes to 
teach his pupils to read aloud well, he must give his pupils good 
models in reading. A superficial study of qualities of voice, 
pitch, inflection, modulation, and the like, will not make a good 
reader. 

Silent reading is a matter of eye and brain ; reading aloud is 
a matter of eye, brain and voice. In silent reading the reader 
is concerned with seeing the printed thought before him. He 
must have such a ready grasp of words and language structure 
as to be able readily to interpret what he sees. If he does not 
know the meanings of the words, or fails to get the meanings 
as revealed in the structure of the sentences, or is unable to re- 
late thoughts in different sentences, his reading is either serious- 
ly crippled or a failure. "The thought is one thing and reading 
is a sensing of this one thing." 

In reading aloud the pupil has the added task of controlling 
his voice so as to convey the sensed thought to the mind of his 
hearers. The use of the voice means the intelligent and accurate 
adaptation of his voice to the thought to be conveyed. Skill in 
this art requires practice, and it is taught by means of models 



55 

by the teacher. A clean, clear-cut enunciation of words, the gen- 
erally accepted pronunciation of words, without pedantry or 
affectation, and a soft and resonant voice are excellent beginnings 
for good reading. Good reading aloud is at once an enviable ac- 
complishment and a valuable asset. 

GEAMMAK. 

Around no other subject have more unprofitable discussions 
clustered than around English grammar. One set of contro- 
versialists has claimed for grammar almost everything; another 
set has inveighed against it; still another set has openly 
declared that the English language has no grammar. Lindley 
Murray defined grammar as teaching the "art of speaking and 
writing the English language with propriety." Grammar came 
to be looked upon as the panacea for all linguistic ills. Pupils 
Avere set to work memorizing abstract definitions, learning rules 
not applicable to English at all, and devoting hours and days 
to parsing page after page of Paradine Lost. The results were 
sadly disappointing. The process did not give us pupils who 
spoke or wrote the English language with propriety. What was 
to be expected came — a reaction. Of that reaction Prof. Baker, 
of Columbia Universit}^, speaks thus: 

"There was for many years a reaction against the study of 
English grammar. This reaction seems to have been the result 
of several causes: (1) The instruction was begun too early, 
and was therefore both meaningless and over-difficult; (2) The 
treatment was made mechanical to the point of degenerating 
into mere rote-work; (3) There was a growing recognition that 
much of the subject was not in reality English grammar at all, 
but Latin grammar badly fitted to the English; (4) TJie claim 
commonly made for the study, that it led to the correct use of 
English, was entirely contradicted by facts, since many good 
students of grammar used bad English, and many who knew 
no grammar used good English." 

The reaction against the study of grammar was justifiable, and 
out of the controversy have come a clearer conception of the 
aim of grammar, a better agreement as to its place in the curri- 
culum, the evolution of somewhat better methods of teaching it, 
and a slightly improved type of textbook. The most important 
of these is the clearer conception of the aim of grammar — im- 
portant in itself and important in its relation to the other three. 



56 

Mr, Chubb thus summarizes the present conception of the aim: 

''(1) We have finally abandoned the old view, which re- 
garded grammar as the art of correct speaking and writing, in 
favor of the view that grammar is the science underlying that 
art, — a knowledge of which aids the art, and is evolved in the 
conscious elaboration of its principles and technique. An art, 
however, is taught by practice; and the main pedagogical factor 
in it is imitation/- 

''■(2) We are freeing ourselves from the tyranny of Latin 
models, and are substituting a grammar that deals simply with 
the actual facts of the P^nglish tongue, and recognizes how 
widely it differs from a highly inflected tongue like Latin."' 

"(3) We have come to recognize the necessity of following 
a different method, for insuring a conscious mastery of our 
native tongue, from that emplo^^ed in mastering a foreign tongue. 
In the one case the method must be mainly inductive and analy- 
tic ; in the other, mainly deductive and synthetic. In the one 
case we are systematizing and rationalizing the data in our pos- 
session; in the other, using the rules that are the outcome of 
systematization, as short cuts to the facts."' 

Although there has been improvement in both the textbooks 
and the teaching, neither can be called perfect or even satis- 
factory. The writers of English grammars seem unable to free 
themselves from Latin grammar models. IVIost of them ignore 
the fact that the English language of today does not conform to 
Latin grammar. They seem to try to make the student forget 
that English grammar deals with funetlon instead of form and 
inflection: In most of their textbooks the declension of the noun 
and the conjugation of the verb are almost as elaborate as are 
to be found in Latin grammars. Select the root-form in each, 
strike out every uninflected form masquerading as inflection, 
and see what a pitiable skeleton is left. Yet, high school stu- 
dents are cajoled, threatened, and compelled to learn these 
fictitious distinctions. 

There is another type of textbook writer even more wedded to 
the sacred past. He is not satisfied with holding on tenaciously 
to the embalmed Latin models, but he insists on resurrecting a 
few that had already been piously put away in the language 
cemetery. To change the figure, he insists on gathering up the 
barnacles which English grammar has cast off and trying to re- 
attach them. If such a writer chooses to write a historical 



57 

grammar, and to show what once Avas true, what has been cast 
off from the hingiiage, Avhat has been added to it, and what the 
hnigiiag^ noAv is, let him do so. He will have done a service, 
and that service will be highly acceptable. But I protest that 
he has no right to attempt to reattach to English grammar what 
does not now belong there. It is the grammarian's business to 
record what the language is. not what he would have it be. 

A close comparison of the contents of a dozen English gi-am- 
nuus of the same grade, say high school grammars, makes you 
feel disposed to accuse the whole group of writers of plagiarism 
and a disregard of the copy-right laws. These grannnars seem 
to have been made by the scissors and pastepot process. Xo 
thought of plagiary was in the mind of any of them; the writers 
were simply unable to break away from traditional models. 
What these writers do in this matter would be no concern of 
ours, were it not that our schools and our pupils are burdened 
with the useless impedimenta of which their books are so full. 

Teachers are going to continue to teach the dead things re- 
tained in our P]nglish grannnars so long as such grammars are 
Avritten. published, and sold, A great many teachers would be 
unable to break away from these worn-out traditions and blaze 
a way for themselves. They were taught these traditions, and 
they will continue to teach them. There are other teachers able 
to blaze a better Avay and Avilling to break away, but they fear 
to take the risk. It is little Avonder that high school teachers 
are slow to inter the ''dead works'' of Elnglish grammar. "When 
they are examined to be certificated to teach English they are 
tested on dead things. Besides, they know that their pupils 
must stand examinations on dead things for entrance to a great 
many colleges. 

Dr. Patterson Wardlaw, of the University of South Carolina, 
a man of fine scholarship and unusual poise between conservat- 
ism and aggressiveness, has written a direct, sensible, and help- 
ful little brochure of 13 pages entitled Simpler English Gram- 
mar. Here are a few extracts : 

"Xo school study stands more sorely in need of being purged 
of 'dead works' than does English grammar. I maintain that 
this subject, as currently treated, is cumbered with a large amount 
of matter that has no value for the practical use of the language 
or for the understandino- of its facts." 



58 

"Grammar should be a descriptive science. It is concerned 
with usage, and what is not perceived by eye or ear is not a 
matter of usage. The business of grammar, then, is to describe 
the actual observable facts in the structure of the sentence, and 
to explain how these sensible facts are means of expressing the 
thought. True, this explanation requires an understanding of 
the thought-relations expressed, but the knowledge of the 
thought-relations is the condition of the grammar rather than 
grammar itself. The grammar of any language is concerned 
Avith them only so far as, in that language, different forms are 
employed for their expression." 

"The most frequent complaint against English grammar is 
that it is an imitation of the grammar of Latin. One could 
wish that this were true so far as the spirit is concerned. Latin 
and Greek grammars grew up under the hands of great scholars, 
who were eager to know and content to describe the usages of 
these tongues exactly as they existed. These men knew no 
superior grammar, and hence approached the subject with no 
preconceptions. They found employment enough for all their 
acumen, and so had no need to import or invent difficulties for 
the exercise of their scholastic skill. They made grammars, and 
(what is perhaps more to the point) the market bought gram- 
mars, as means of learning Latin and Greek; not for mental 
exercise. The opposite, in most respects, can be said of the work 
of those who laid the ground plans of the grammar of English. 
Much that is in it today is there for no better reason than that it 
was in the Latin grammar. A part of the remainder seems to 
have been introduced merely to gratify a taste for scholastic 
subtlety. It is an error to suppose that the breed of schoolmen 
passed away with the middle ages." 

The confusion in grammatical nomenclature has become an 
almost unbearable nuisance to both teachers and students. For 
grammars to disagree on nomenclature because they disagree on 
interpretation is vexatious enough. To disagree by applying 
a different nomenclature to the same interpretation, or to the 
same thing, is exasperating. Pupils become hopelessly confused 
from the promiscuous and interchangeable use of such terms as 
dependent sentence^ dependent claiise^ subordinate clause^ xit- 
tributive clause, substantive clause, adjective clause, adverb 
clause. Dr. William Gardner Hale, of the University of 
Chicago, has this to say of the present situation : 



59 

"The present state of affairs, at any rate, is bad .... So great a 
variation of terminolog;^" has nowhere else come into existence as 
in the grammar of our mother tongue. The result is confusing to 
the student as he changes books in passing from year to year, or 
perhaps from school to school. It is confusing to the teacher, 
since he often has to deal with a number of students trained to 
a different terminolog}" from that of the rest of the class, or even 
to change his own terminology^' as one publishing house after 
another gets the upper hand in the struggle for the sale of books." 

Committees of national and international importance have 
been at work for about te'^ years on preparing a simpler and 
saner terminology for the grammars of English and other lan- 
guages. To date nothing permanent has been accomplished, 
and nothing very promising has been offered. 

Suggestions. 

1. Just how much knowledge of formal grammar the pupil 
should bring with him to the high school is a debatable question. 
Just how much he is going to bring is more easily settled. He 
ought not to be expected to bring much. "Grammar is not milk 
for babes" was a favorite sajdng of the late Dr. Joynes, and few 
men, if any, understood better the appropriateness of the remark. 
Grammar is logic, if anything. It must be attacked with zeal, 
vigor and determination, if it is to be mastered. Nothing short of 
unceasing and well directed efforts will bring fruitful i-esults. Dr. 
Synder, of Wofford College, says, "I believe that there must be an 
unremitting drill in theoretical and practical grammar. I count 
the disrepute into which grammatical drill has fallen in our 
secondary schools a distinct loss, for which superficial flower- 
peeping and nature-faking are far from being compensatory ab- 
sorptions of the time of the pupil." 

2. A total of not less than one years work should be given 
to a rigorous study of grammar and its applications to spoken 
and written composition. To study grammar as an isolated and 
independent subject soon becomes tiresome. It should be pur- 
sued in close relation to the composition and the literature. For 
these reasons teachers are advised against a custom that is very 
prevalent in high schools — that of divorcing grammar from the 
study of composition, giving it daily recitations as an isolated 
subject, and confining the study of grammar to the first year of 
the high school. In this way the subject is reduced to abstract 



CO 

logic, studied by iminatiue pupils, then dismissed. It is better 
to distribute the frranimar study over at least two years, if not 
longer. In fact, grammar study can not be entirely abandoned 
as long as the student studies the language. It is a court of 
appeal to which he is constantly referring matters for decision. 

3. Within proper limits, parsing is a profitable and necessary 
school exercise. Beyond these limits there is no other exercise 
more uninviting and barren. To label, classify, and pigeon-hole 
the word's of an intricate sentence require discrimination and keen 
judgment. The value of such procedure is limited. Beyond this 
limit the profits are too meager. Sorting, labeling, and packing 
garden seeds do not insure the making of a successful gardener. 
''In parsing, turn attention to distinctions that correspond to 
actual differences of form or construction. Unless a pronoun is 
concerned, the gender of horse is as irrelevant as the size of 
colf^'' says one of the authorities already' quoted. Xo less an au- 
thority than Dr. Joynes asserts that gender is practically no 
longer in English grammar except for the pronouns he, she, it. 
Then, why w-aste time giving the gender of every noun? Are 
we studying grammar or anatomy? Moreover, if we insist on 
going back to sex every time we come to a noun, we must admit 
only two. It would follow that we have gender-nouns and 
genderless-nouns. Therefore. Ave are limited to the masculine 
and feminine genders. In our elaborate parsing we refuse to 
abide by our anatomy, and insist on masculine, feminine, neuter 
and common genders. 

4. The analysis of sentences is a more profitable school exer- 
cise than parsing, but even this can be emphasized out of all 
proportion to its value. The analytic side of language study 
must not obscure the synthetic side. The only analysis that is of 
value is the analysis of the thought contained in the sentence. It 
is highly important that pupils be helped to acquire a sense of 
order and completeness in a sentence. Pupils of fair minds are 
often totally unable to appreciate the fact that a given sentence 
is incomplete. I might here reproduce a hundred such sentences 
which I have jjicked up in the classroom during the past few 
years. Another important thing for pupils to learn is, to grasp 
quickly coordinate and subordinate relations of words, phrases, 
and clauses. Unless they can do this, the meaning of a sentence 
often escapes them. In the analysis of sentences, do' not waste 
time separating the grammatical subject from the logical subject, 



()1 

and the grammutiatl piedicate from the logical predkate, or 
culling the simple suhject from the complete suhject. Such a 
performance shows that Ave have missed the mark as to even the 
meaning of the subject of a sentence and its predication. 

5. Do not be afraid to use a diagram because you happen to 
have heard diagrams derided. Derision is often cheap. If you 
see that by picturing the relation of the parts of a sentence to 
your pupils you can better teach these rehitions, have the good 
sense to use a diagram. Please remember that you are not advised 
to go regularly into the picture business. Do not wear the dia- 
gram out, or devote too much time to making elaborate draAvings 
upon which you may hang your sentences. Besides, remember 
that the diagram is the teacher's tool, not the pupil's. The 
pupil gains nothing by diagraming a sentence for the teacher, 
unless he is teaching the teacher. 

6. In parsing and analysis, do not touch the complex sentence 
till the class has fairly mastered the simple sentence. To do so 
may be ""logical,'' but it is not practical. 

7. Giving false syntax to jHipils for correction was once very 
fashionable, and it has not yet gone altogether out of style. To 
give to pupils their own bad diction is entirely proper. They 
make these mistakes either because they know no better or they 
are careless. They must be made uncomfortably conscious of 
their errors before they will abandon them. But, to give j^upils 
for correction the mistakes of others is unpedagogical and un- 
wise. What possible benefit can accrue to a pupil from correct- 
ing an error in speech Mhich he never makes and perhaps never 
hears? Xot only does he get no profit from it, but he may be 
exposed to injury from it. Moreover, Avhen the average pupil is 
asked to correct sentences anywhere, he makes his corrections 
by making changes somewhere. 

8. Do not be misled into regarding English as a grammarless 
huiguage. English has a grammar as clear-cut and as logical 
as iliat of Greek, Latin, or German, but it is far from identical 
with any of them. Why prostitute its richness, its flexibility, 
and its distinct individuality in a futile effort to make it what 
it is not? We frequently hear certain teachers assert with great 
assurance that they never learned English grammar until they 
learned it through Latin grammar. Are these teachers sure that 
they have learned English grammar? Certainly they are not the 
same thing. These are the teachers who Avould tear their hair 



62 

in despair and indignation, if one of their j>upils were to give 
the sentence rex faciunt in the Latin recitation, but will listen all 
day to the king donH without the least compunction. 

9. Finally, fellow teacher, you teach far more by example 
than by direction. It matters less what the books say do than 
what you actually do. If your enunciation of words is faulty 
and indistinct, your pronunciation faulty or pedantic, your read- 
ing aloud poor or unnatural, or your diction a contradiction to 
good usage, your success is limited. If everything with you is 
awfully ciite^ darling or gorgeous^ or you are constantly dying 
or crazy about something, you need not look for great things to 
come of your English teaching. 

COMPOSITION. 

The ability to shape one's thought into logical sentences, then 
to link these sentences into a telling and pleasing order is indeed 
a fine art. The resultant is composition, whether conversation, 
recitation, public address, letter writing, newspaper reporting, or 
theme writing. To produce any kind of composition, oral or 
written, the speaker or writer must have material with which to 
work. He must have some thought material, some command of 
words in which to clothe his thought, some knowledge of sentence 
structure, and some knowledge of the art of linking sentences to- 
gether in that telling and pleasing order. To acquire skill in 
composition requires persistent effort, untiring patience, and 
studious attention to details, on the part of teacher and pupil. 
Once the skill is acquired the possessor will never begrudge the 
time or the pains. An occasional pupil of exceptional language 
sense reaches a standard of excellence with less than the custom- 
ary^ labor and effort, but most persons who have acquired skill 
in composition have done so after prolonged effort and repeated 
trials. However, any pupil of average capacity can, with care 
and diligence, become reasonably proficient in oral and written 
composition. Let no pupil be discouraged. 

As a rule, there is no other school exercise less enjoyed or more 
dreaded by high school pupils than composition writing, and it 
may be truthfully added that the product is not \-ery flattering 
to the pupils or their teachers. There must be some sufficient 
reason for the attitude of the pupils toward composition Avriting, 
and for the unsatisfactory results. Unquestionably pupils bring 



63 

to the high school some thought material gained from their ob- 
servation, their experiences, and their reading. They have ac- 
quired at least a small, accurate vocabulary with which to express 
their thoughts, and they certainly bring with them a will- 
ingness and a readiness to talk about the things they know and 
the things which interest them. Then, why should they become 
so nearly paralyzed when asked to write? 

Is it not more than probable that we approach the teaching 
of composition in the wrong way? Any teaching to be good 
teaching must be on the j)lane of the pupil's ability and ex- 
perience. Teaching below that plane is puerile; teaching above 
it is barren. How many of us teachers realize that the ultimate 
success or failure of our composition work is deeply rooted in 
the English of the daily recitationsj, to say nothing of the English 
of the playground? Is there not frequently too great a chasm 
between the informal oral composition of the recitation hour and 
the formal written compositions required at stated intervals? 
Does the pupil in the high school feel that there is any intimate 
relationship between his oral composition in daily life and his 
formal written theme? Does he feel that in his every-day con- 
versation he is consciously or unconsciously making an effort to 
choose his words, to watch his sentence structure, and to 
arrange his sentences in a telling and pleasing order? All these 
things depend largely upon the accuracy of the English used by 
the teacher and the pupils in the daily recitations. The teacher 
who permits himself to violate the canons of good English and 
l>ermits his i>upils even wider range in the school exercises day 
after day, need not be disappointed if his pupils make poor 
progress in composition. 

The pupil who can spell readily and accurately the words of 
his vocabulary, and can put his thought into ordinary sentences 
grammatically correct, is ready to be taught the art of com- 
position. He can be taught how to link two sentences together 
without a jolt or a jar, and how to make the thought in the 
second sentence progress beyond that in the first sentence. In 
the same way the third, the fourth, and still other sentences may 
be added, always keeping the current of the thought moving 
forward. In the same manner the paragraph is built up, and 
so on until a short theme has been composed. 

Most of our composition teaching, I fear, has two serious 
weaknesses. We take too much for granted as to the pupil's stock 



64 

of thought material and his ability to think, and we try to teach 
composition by l)eginning with rules for writing. A pupil can 
not commit to writing thought until he has acquired the power 
to think— a stock upon which to draw. To expect a high school 
pupil to sit down and coin thought smacks of the visionary. 
His experiences and his observations are limited. His thought 
range is inside these. As a pupil thinketh so will he write. Time 
and time again I have seen pupils wrestling with the "frame- 
work" of a theme when they had no material to put on the frame- 
work. The most pathetic part of the situation was the teacher's 
inability to see where the trouble lay. In his ambition for bigger 
things he overlooked the foundation for big things. 

The close ob&erver of work in our high schools must be im- 
pressed Avith the thought that in composition we attempt to go 
beyond our limitations. Much of our work is ill-suited to the 
age, advancement, and experience of our pupils, and is conse- 
quently artificial and frothy. Instead of teaching boys and girls 
to use their mother-tongue with comparative ease and accuracy 
in their -every-day affairs, we seem to be attempting to make es- 
sayists before they are eighteen. They are put to studying the 
paragraph before they can handle single sentences, and are put to 
Avork on themes before they have learned the function of the 
paragraph. It is too much to expect a pupil unable to subor- 
dinate at will one thouht to another in a single sentence, to do 
much toAvard develojnng a paragrcqilii, or to value thiie order, 
sfdce order, or any other Idnd of order. To the unskilled pupil 
requiring an effort to arrange four or fiA'e sentences in a para- 
graph, dei'clopment of details, main incidents^ and jjToportion 
are deadening. Clearness^ coherence^ uniti/, and emphasis can 
not possibly mean much to a boy unable to distinguish between 
an indirect quotation and an indirect question. Narration and 
description are but names to a girl Avho strings together a half- 
dozen meaningless phrases and clauses and calls the medley a 
sentence. Ascend ing interest, climax., and descending interest 
are rather cumbersome tools for high school pupils. What 
permanent benefit, or even temporary stimulus, do figures of 
speech give to a pupil Avith a hazy notion of the literal meanings 
of ten per cent, of the Avords he meets in his Avork? Textbooks 
in Composition, Rhetoric, and Composition-Rhetoric, suited to 
college freshmen and sophomores, have not proved successes in 
the hisfh school. Much in these textbooks and much of the teach- 



65 

ing from them are alwve the plane of high sc-hool pupils. How 
can we consistently expect a class to perform a task when its 
members are unable to interpret some of the language in which 
the directions for the task are given? It is difficult for some 
teachers to see that the quality of their teaching has nothing 
whatever to do with the degree of advancement of their teach- 
ing. 

A certain teacher took pride in his formal composition teach- 
ing. Fraiiieu'orl\- ascending interest^ and climax were familiar 
terms in his classroom. With pride he talked of Avhat his pupils 
could do with composition. From an examination paper of one 
of his pupils I copied this sentence : '\Shore lines are important 
as they are the outlet and inlet of continents and the fish and 
sand to make glass.*' This poor fellow happened to have no 
framework in his answer to a question in physical geography. 

The frequency with which formal composition should be re- 
quired is a question often asked. The frequency of these formal 
ettorts is not nearly so important as the daily practice of having 
at least some members of the class to put on paper some short 
informal piece of composition, if not more than five or six sen- 
tences. An effort by the entire class to put into one compact 
l>aragraph the best summary of an important topic in yes- 
terday's histoiy recitation, a lively but correct narration of the 
last inning in yesterday's ball game, or a brief description of the 
l>reparations for the next day's picnic— such an effort will often 
accomplish more for the class than a set of formal compositions. 
The reasons are simple enough. These topics come within the 
range of their experience, they have for the pupils a pei*sonal 
interest, the tojMcs are fresh in the minds of the pui>ils, and the 
pupils are not writing with a conscious dread of rules. Many 
good teachers rarely call for a formal composition from every 
member of a class at the same time. They make the writing and 
the correcting of compositions an individual and personal matter. 
On at least one point all are agreed — that composition work 
should be kept up uninterruptedly throughout the entire high 
school period. 

Do not call for any composition, unless you intend to read it 
carefully, correct it carefidly, and go over it carefully with the 
Avriter. You expect compositions to be written in good faith. 
Read them, correct them, and criticise them with the writer in 
good faith. Some errors are common to everv member of the 



60 



;!s' n17, ""'■ ' "'""""^ '"^ ^°™^t«l before the entire 
n. ,.t T "■' °"'"' '"°'' "l-i* ^--^ entirely indirid aT 
Do not tate the t,me of the class to discuss these; do thai with 
he nuhvjdual needing the correction. In correcting paers™ 
are not displaying to the class your knowledge of 00^03^0^ 
but trying to show each individual his errorf.nd .1 ' 

correct thom i t c i ^i . errors and tiie way to 

coirect them. At first the number of errors will be laro-e 
Center upon a few of the violations of ordinary decent om' 

rZr ^i'stlr'^r :r '/ ""' '"^" '"™ ^^^ altenTon to tl" 

bh ," Tl«v h "° P™' ^"^ '" "'^ "^-^ °f -^d ,nk and 

uiL.e pencils, iiiey have no special charm fn,^ fi.^ , -i x 

gling to whip his thought into' preslntirshape '"'"" ''"''- 

uUcJT^T'T "'"' "'^ ^''""'"^■- =""» "'« imposition are the 
paces to teach punctuation. It is a waste of time to studv 
manuals on punctuation apart- from the actual use of , * 

i™::;:"t:r"ris f ^™r ^^ -"^ --^^^^ " 'pCh- 

pi mctuatecl. It is properly punctuated when the punctuation 
m kes the granxinatical meaning clear and positive. That ^e 
only use for punctuation. -l "at is the 

But little rhetoric teaching can be done in the high school 
SoniP of the simplest elements of the subiect can b! T T^V' 
incorporated with the composition m tl^ foi r h yeL'lt ' 

.mcommon thing for college students to in rt JoTth't ^'h^v 

SS- re^i:Tirrm~ni t^V^^^^^jf'^ 

:i:^ X^dtTnytfVe'r ''-^^''^ ^^^^^J^Z 
rang! or .1.^:^ thl w •tl^J^'^^ClTX- e^ir^ - 

tence, does he not at once realL that tht ^enris'^^tlZ 



67 

same plane of thinking or expre,ssion with the remainder of the 
composition ? Does an observant teacher not soon learn the plane 
of thinking and expression of every pupil in the class? To be 
sure, gems above the plane of the writer are well enough, pro- 
vided full credit is given to the quotation. An ambition to move 
on a higher plane than we are prepared to move brings us into 
l)ad Avays, whether in living beyond our income or in writing 
above our resources. We use recklessly what belongs to others. 
Here is a pupil who is asked to write on some subject beyond 
his experience or understanding (and they often are) ; he wishes 
to make the best showing possible (and that is commendable) ; 
he is told to go to the library to read certain books or magazines 
(that is right and proper) ; here and there he is able to touch 
his toes to the ground, so to speak, but his task is for the most 
part far beyond him; he tries to work over certain passages 
into his own language, but they lose terribly in force and beauty ; 
then he begins to steal both the thought and its clothing. Finally, 
he turns in his essay with evidences of his botched job sticking 
out at every corner. In some mysterious way it all gets by the 
censor, and the next thing you hear is that this pupil has been 
awarded the prize for the best composition. I am not dreaming. 

LITERATURE. 

It is doubtful if any other subject in the high school pro- 
gram of studies is capable of being made to the average pupil 
more fascinating or more valuable than literature, provided it is 
well taught. Literature deals with feelings, emotions, and ideals 
— the spiritual;, as well as furnishing a training for the judgment. 
The ultimate aim of teaching it in the high school is to cultivate 
a tast^ for good reading. The test of a teacher's success in the 
subject is Avhat his pupils do after they leave him. If his pupils 
actually read good literature and enjoy it, he has succeeded. If 
instead they read worthless trash and revel in it, or read noth- 
ing more substantial than the daily newspaper, or read nothing 
at all. the teacher has largely failed. When one scans the 
shelves of the book stores and the counters of the news stands, 
he is forced to believe that many of us teachers are not brilliant 
successes in teaching literature. The volume of trash and filth 
read in the name of literature by the people after they leave 
the schools, and even before, is appalling. Teachers can not be 
blamed for all of it, but Ave are missing the mark. 



68 

The first step toward the successful teaching of literature is to 
select matter suited to the age. training, and appreciation of your 
pupils. To blunder here is to blunder fatally. The wise teacher 
is not going to select what pleases him, unless he can make it 
please his pupils. Because he likes Shakespeare, Milton, and 
Emerson is no evidence that his pupils like them or can be in- 
duced to like them. The teacher often has set before him Avhole- 
some food prepared in an inviting way, yet he refuses to eat 
it, simply because he has no taste for it. The intellectual appetite 
of pupils is no less fickle or discriminating than the physical 
apj>etite of the teacher. Again, when a mother goes to the store 
to purchase a pair of shoes for her child, she fits the child not 
herself. Are we teachers as wise when we select our high school 
literature? Literature suited to 3rd-year pupils may be wholly 
beyond the appreciation or the understanding of Ist-year pupils. 
A 2nd-year class coming from cultured and reading homes may 
pursue wnth pleasure and profit a given piece of literature that 
would be but sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal to even 3rd- 
year pupils coming from illiterate or non-reading homes. 

The College Entrance Requirements in English have served 
an excellent purpose in a good many ways, but these requii'ements 
have been too inflexibly interpreted by school people. In under- 
taking to prepare pupils for college entrance, teachers of English 
literature have forced some diastrous misfits in their schools. 
The colleges, too, have unduly emphasized the study and the 
reading of a select list of specimens, as if these were the only 
good literature obtainable. It seems that the time has come for 
a saner basis of selection of material and a better understanding 
between the college and the high school. The college is con- 
cerned about the preparation of the pupil to do his work after 
he enters; it is difficult for the common man to understand why 
the college should be at all concerned how the pupil has acquired 
his preparation. If the pupil carries with him to college a 
taste for literature, and a capacity to carry on his work, what 
concern is it to the college whether the pupil acquired these l)y 
studying Burke's Conciliation or Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress, Macbeth or Innocents Abroad? When Avill the college 
professor and the high school tea'cher discover that a fifteen-year 
old youngster is not a piece of putty ? 

After what has just been said, it would be inconsistent to 
undertake to offer a list of suitable specimens of literature. How- 



69 

ever. ;i few comments may not be inappropriate. Shakespeare 
needs neither apoloiry nor defense, but his name has come to be 
a Avord to conjure with, and the less a teacher knows about litera- 
ture the more he works Shakespeare. Xot a few teachers seem to 
think that they surrender all claim to teaching literature, unless 
they give much time to the bard. Nor is that the worst. They 
insist on teaching the most difficult of the plan's. Little boys in 
knee trousers are put to studying Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello, 
when they would be far better employed reading Evangeline, 
Enoch Arden, The Prince and the Pauper, Treasure Island, and 
Christmas Carol. 

The second step in the successful teaching of literature is the 
manner in which it is taught. If literature is a fine art, teach- 
ing it is a finer art. One of the best teachers of literature I know- 
can not tell 3'ou how he does it — but he does it. In logic one of 
the processes of arriving at a conclusion is by the way of elimi- 
nation; before building a new house on ground occupied by an 
old one, the old one must first be torn down and the ground 
cleared of rubbish. In the manner of teaching literature let us 
first clear the ground of some rubbish. In the first place, most of 
us are too ambitious, and our judgment seems to Ix^ at fault as to 
our aims. Instead of being content Avith cultivating a taste and 
a thirst for good reading, we apparently try to make literary 
critics of our immature 3'oungsters in the middle of their teens. 
Several years of high school visiting have convinced me that there 
is more froth, bombast, and artificiality in the teaching of litera- 
ture than in any other two high school subjects. The subject 
lends itself rather readily to fancy, speculation, and individual 
interpretation. The teacher of mathematics can not indulge in 
mere opinions and speculations in dealing with the problems in 
his classes. He deals with inexorable laws and inevitable con- 
clusions. He can not dismiss a knotty problem M'ith his unsup- 
ported opinion, or some quotation from an irresponsible an- 
notator. 

There are a few teachers equipped to do good work, were they 
not infected with a yearning to be accounted connoisseurs in 
literature. They like to pass as persons of literary taste and 
acumen. Some of them have acquired some genuine literary taste, 
inspired by some good teacher, but without ever stopping to 
ascertain how such inspiration came to them or at what age 
it came, they try to communicate the inspiration to their pupils 



70 

by plunging them into literary criticism. Then there is another 
class of teachers, possessed of peculiar mental machinery, who 
fall into a species of fanciful speculation which they call inter- 
pretation. They live and move in a poetic zone, and read into 
Shakespeare's and Tennyson's lines what these worthies never 
thought of. They soon get the prigs and the sissies of the school 
to believe themselves somehow touched with a high order of 
genius. After a year or two of this kind of performance in a 
school, it will require at least two years more to bring these 
pupils down out of the clouds and to put them on safe ground. 

All such teaching is merely putting a veneer of embellisliment 
ahead of substance. This kind of teaching begins too near the 
top, instead of beginning at the bottom. The pupils are taken 
out star-gazing before they have a secure footing on the earth. 
The teachers require their pupils to poach on the literary pre- 
serves of the college professor. In fact, some of these teachers 
give their high school classes some of the Avork they themselves 
had late in their college course. When one hears a class of high 
school Waldos and blue-stockings interpreting and comparing 
Shakespeare and Tennyson and Browning, and anal3'^zing Poe 
and Burke and Emerson, and critically discussing 'plots^ key- 
notes, incentive moments and climaxes, he begins to be amazed. 
When he hears all the beautiful lines culled out and labeled, and 
hears all the memory gems recited and annotated, he is still more 
amazed. He wonders how long it will be before higher criticism 
will reach the elementary grades. 

In many schools there is a strong and unfortunate tendency 
to overload pupils with literature. Not infrequently one hears 
teachers talking about saturating their pupils with good reading. 
Whenever I hear the word saturate I can not help thinking of a 
sponge. To surfeit anybody with anything, no matter how good 
in itself, is to court a reaction. Has the saturating process 
brought us satisfactory results? Go to almost any book store, 
make an inventory of what you see, then draw your own con- 
clusions. For every substantial, wholesome book sold you will 
see a half dozen of the sentimental, shady, and worthless types 
snatched up. Is there not room for suspecting that many of the 
buyers and readers of these latter books were saturated to their 
disgust by their over-zealous teachers, and are now indulging in 
a respite? 



71 



Books are excellent things. So is bread. Wholesome bread and 
wholesome books, in proper quantities and at the proper tmie, 
nourish and give strength. Either needs to be properly pre- 
pared and served, and neither will nourish, unless digested and 
assimilated. People who read all the time have no time to think, 
and even less to act. The man who does nothing but read has 
little more to be proud of than the man who does nothing but 
play chess. Reading to be valuable must be well chosen, and 
must be followed by periods of reflection. 

Rapid reading is more than an accomplishment, if accuracy is 
not sacrificed. However, the high school age is not the time to 
cultivate rapid reading. Pupils of this age who read rapidly 
usually read carelessly, and careless reading will finally injure, 
if not destroy, the studious habits of any pupil. Most students 
are naturally careless enough in their habits of thought, without 
encouraging them to become worse. Skimming through books in 
a careless way will soon make any student unwilling to sit down 
deliberately to prolonged and sustained effort to go to the bottom 
of any difficult question. Rushing classes through many books 
may be a kind of grand-stand play, but it will not win games. 

The human voice has no superior as an instrument in teach- 
ing literature. I do not mean tragic or histrionic vocal capers. 
The most tragic thing about such performances is that it is little 
above low comedy. I do mean that a clear, well-modulated voice, 
under good control, is an instrument of power in the hands of 
any teacher. O^f course, behind this voice must be a mastery of 
the matter read. Simple, artless reading makes a powerful ap- 
peal to the hearer. If the hearer also is able to respond with 
good reading, the recitation hour is one of unalloyed pleasure. 
Now, good reading is taught not by directions but by. imitation. 
The teacher must furnish the models. Dr. J. C. Metcalf, of the 
University of Virginia, has this to say : 

"I have sometimes found that the only way to arouse inter- 
est on the part of certain young people in literature and to 
win an intelligent response from them has been through oral in- 
terpretation. To many a boy or girl a poem or a play means 
nothing on its face; the thought may be too subtle and the ar- 
tistic form too refined for their understanding and experience. . . . 
I advise all teachers of literature to read poetry aloud for their 
own enjoyment, first of all, and then for the enjoyment of their 
pupils. They never forget the teaching of a teacher who can 



72 . 

read well .... Poetry and all forms of really artistic prose should 
be both seen and heard from the teacher and from the pupil. I 
do not mean that the teacher should spend all his time in read- 
ing to pupils. As good as written exercises are, we have, I fear, 
overdone this phase of our teaching and left undone the train- 
ing of the human voice as an instrument of literary appreciation." 

Finally, I would advise teachers stronglj^ against consuming 
valuable time in the vain endeavor to teach the history of litera- 
ture to high school pupils. The history of literature is inextri- 
cably interwoven with the big movements of history, and is, 
therefore, beyond the comprehension of the pupil of the high 
school age and training. It is farcical to call the little bio- 
graphies of writers the history of literature. If you feel that 
you can use one of these little manuals with profit, do so, but 
classify it as biography supplementary to the history. 

Helpful books: 

Carpenter, Baker & Scott's The Teaching of English. Long- 
mans. 

Klapper's The Teaching of English. Appleton. 

LATIN. 

Latin is unquestionably an imperial language. It was one of 
the first subjects to be accorded a place in the secondary school 
curriculum. It has fully justified its right to a permanent place 
there. Its value is almost universally recognized and admitted. 
Tliere is little danger of its being relatively undervalued. For 
centuries Latin had few rivals in the curriculum. It acquired 
such a prestige that many i^eople came to render it an idolatrous 
reverence. Teachers did not feel called upon to assign any 
reasons for teaching Latin. Tradition had done its work. After 
the admission of other subjects to the curriculum, the older sub- 
jects, Latin included, had to justify their claim to being con- 
tinued. In the case of Latin this was not difficult, but in defend- 
ing Latin many of its advocates have shown a spirit not alto- 
gether complimentar}^ to education. If education does what is 
claimed for it, it frees men's minds from contracted A^ews — 
from mental myopia. This has hardly been the case with some 
of the extreme advocates of Latin. The specialist and the ex- 
pert frequently lose poise when on the witness stand; they at- 
test to too much. Not content with giving good and sufficient 
reasons for the study of Latin, these experts are so extravagant 



T3 

in their claims for their favorite subject that some of the ap- 
l^raised values are magnified out of all reason. The purblind 
advocate of Latin usually makes the fundamental mistake of re- 
fusing' an equal value to any other subject. With him Latin 
has no equal as a school subject. Most men of this class are ex- 
treme disciples of the doctrine of formal discipline. They in- 
sist upon putting' discipline above everything else. One of their 
fa^'orite sayings is, ''How we tench a thing is more important 
than what we teach." If they are consistent, why do they in- 
■\anably insist on Latin's being that what? Are such educational 
leaders catholic enough to be safe? 

Turning from the specialist and the expert to the average 
teacher, one finds a like homage paid to Latin. Comparatively 
few of them have made any serious study of educational values, 
but they are often ready to make the boldest and most positive 
assertions as to the superiority of Latin. They tell you that for 
generations Latin held first place in the curriculum, conveniently 
Unmindful of the fact that some of the most valuable subjects 
in the curriculum have been there less than fifty yeai-s. Some of 
this class justify their advocacy of Latin by riding the much 
over-worked hobby of the debt that English owes to Latin for 
so many of its Avords. These teachers in their recitations in 
English, history, geography, aritlmietic, algebra, and the i*est, 
stop eveiy few sentences to ask for the Latin roots of the words 
used in these recitations. This is their plan of keeping the value 
of Latin constantly before the eyes of their pupils and patrons. 
To this class belongs also the teachers who insist on teaching 
Latin in order to teach English. They confidently assert that 
they learned English by learning Latin. Then, what kind of 
English did they learn, for the two languages are not the same 
in structure or idiom ? 

Among teachers there seems to be a wide-spread feeling that 
unless a teacher offers or consents to teach Latin, he loses caste 
as a teacher. They are perfectly willing to be known as unpre- 
l>ared to teach physics or chemistry, and even mathematics, but 
Latin — ^never. No matter how little they may know of Latin, 
they must essay to teach it. A^^iat pathetic tragedies some of 
them enact ! I woidd be unAvilling to set down here some of the 
murderous efforts I have seen made. 

The popular homage paid to Latin is a matter of some con- 
cern. With the educated this homage is natural, justifiable^ and 



74 

to be expected ; with the uneducated it is often difficult to under- 
stand. Ignorance is always fanatical in its devotion to anything 
to which it attaches itself. The Eleusinian Mysteries were rev- 
erenced all the more by the Greek populace because their signifi- 
cance was mysterious. Much homage is paid to Latin by people 
absnlutely ignorant of the language. Many a parent, unable to 
distinguish a single Latin word from one in Esperanto, insists 
on having his child taught Latin in some fashion. There are 
numerous school trustees acting with the same blind devotion to 
an unknown tongue. One can not well think of anything more 
pathetic than a school board wholly ignorant of Latin, none too 
well trained in English, and intrusted with small means for the 
education of their own children and those of their neighbors, em- 
ploying at random a teacher to teach these children Latin, wdien 
perhaps not a single one of them will ever get beyond the First 
Book of Caesar's Gallic War. In literally hundreds of little 
country schools, over-crowded with children and recitations, half- 
prepared or vain-glorious teachers are giving from one-eighth 
to one- fourth of their time to drilling Latin into a little group 
of children who ought to be learning how to read English, to 
miake simple calculations, and to become useful citizens. 

Dr. DeGarno says. "'The most obvious educational value of the 
ancient languages is the opportunity they give for the develop- 
ment of language consciousness through the long drill in making 
grammatical distinctions." 

Because Latin is a valuable subject is not evidence that it is 
the best subject, or even a good subject, for everybody. The in- 
tense classicists have done the study of Latin incalculable harm 
by insisting with the spirit of martinetism that at least every 
boy in the high school should study it. Every teacher of ex- 
perience knows that frequently a class of from fifteen to twenty 
pupils is held back to the point of disgust for the subject by 
two or three plodding members who will never learn Latin. Prof. 
Bennett can not be accused of being prejudiced against Latin. 
Here is what he says on this point: 

"At present, however, the danger seems to be not that too few 
Avill study Latin, but rather too many. Latin is a difficult sub- 
ject, and the peculiar educative power it possesses is not capable 
of being exercised upon all minds, — only upon those of a certain 
natural endowment. In our intense democracy we are perhaps 
at times inclined to forget that no constitutional declarations of 



75 

civil equality can ever make, or were ever intended to recognize, 
an intellectual equality between the individual members of the 
nation. Latin is good for those whose gifts enable them to profit 
bj^ its study. It is not, however, capable of popular distribution 
like so much flour or sugar. Because Latin is a highly effective 
instrument for the training of certain minds, we must not think 
that the efficiency is contained in the subject fer se; there must 
exist in the pupil the mental endowment requisite to profit by 
Latin; else the time spent upon the study is worse than wasted. 
Observation convinces me that mam' parents and pupils labor 
from a serious misconception on this point, and that many are 
ambitious to study Latin whom nature has not endowed with 
the capacity to benefit by its pursuit." 

There is no use to attempt to disguise the fact that Latin is 
to most students a difficult study. It requires intense and sus- 
tained effort to get out of Latin the value that is in it. However, 
the mere fact that it is difficult has nothing whatever to do with 
its value. Dismiss from your mind any such crotchet as one 
frequently hears — that Latin is a valuable study because it is 
difficult. On that ground, Chinese Avould be far superior to 
Latin. The value of no subject is dependent upon the ease or 
the difficulty with which it is mastered. Lindoubtedly there is 
such a thing as mental discipline, but mental discipline and 
mental gymnastics are not synonymous. 

Not a few teachers frankly admit that they have students tak- 
ing Latin under compulsion because the school has nothing else 
to offer in lieu of Latin. Is it fair, or just, or even sensible, to 
compel any student to take any subject simply because it is in 
the curriculum, or because the school is unable to offer anything 
in its stead? On the same plane of logic, were a woman to go 
to a store and ask for gingham, and the merchant had no ging- 
ham, she would be expected to take his only substitute — calico. 

The teacher should realize that he is teaching Latin, and not 
English. We do not study Latin in order to learn English, 
however fondly we may have cherished that delusion. The idioms 
of the two languages are widely different, and we approach their 
study in different ways. To be sure, the student of any language 
will incidently derive benefit from studying any cognate lan- 
guage. In the. two he is constantly discovering similarities, 
parallels, and contrasts which strengthen him in his linguistic ef- 
forts, just as the study of one science aids in the study of a kin- 



76 

dred one. But. as has already been pointed out, the grammar 
of Latin and that of English are radically dilferent. 

Unless a teacher knows Latin and something of how to teach 
it, he is most seriously advised not to undertake it. More stu- 
dents are driven from Latin through the inferior teaching of 
it than through all other causes combined. Boj^s and girls with 
red blood in their veins do not shun Latin, or any other subject, 
merely because it is difficult. Literally thousands of ambitious 
students take special delight in the masteiy of difficult tasks. 
All that such students ask or need is confidence in the ability, skill 
and enthusiasm of their teachers. It is utterly needless to be 
continually telling your students of the innumerable benefits that 
have come to thousands who have studied Latin, and of the bene- 
fits that ma}^ come to them from Latin stud}^ Demonstrate the 
benefits by your own attainments and by j^our superior teaching. 
A teacher has neither the right nor the need to ask his students 
to take on faith the benefits accruing from his own chosen sub- 
ject. 

BEGINXER'S LATIN. 

In schools other than Junior High Schools, teachers are 
strongly advised against putting I^atin into the seventh grade. 
There are several reasons for not doing so : The seventh grade 
in the ordinarv^ school is already congested with Avork; it is 
better to begin algebra in this grade than Latin ; to put I^atin into 
the grade simply compels the pupils to prolong into the high 
school studies Avhich should be completed in the elementary 
school. Not only do the pupils enter the high school encumbered 
with this unfinished elementary work, but they are unable to do 
the high school work as it should be done. Teach pupils some 
English before taking up Latin. When Latin is taken up in the 
high school it should be pursued vigorously every day. 

As in most other things, the beginning is the most important 
thing in teaching Latin. In most cases the degree of success at- 
tained during the first eight or ten Aveeks determines the ultimate 
success of a pupil or a class. Some of the best Latin teachers 
do not permit their beginnei-s to make any attempt alone to 
prepare a lesson for at least tAvo Aveeks. Pupils use their books 
only during supervised study periods or on study-recitations. 
By following this plan, the pupils approach each lesson under 
the immediate guidance of the teacher, lose no time making blun- 



( i 

ders and correcting them, and gain confidence in themselves and 
in their ability to master the work. For a stndent to feel at 
the end of a month that he has made actual progress ^Yithout any 
loss of time is itself inspiring. 

The first difficulty which confronts a beginner in Latin is the 
new and strange words. He must l^ecome acquainted with these 
Avords in written form and in oral speech. He must hear these 
strange words properly pronounced over and over by the teaclier. 
Xext he must pronounce them again and again, until he feels no 
more embarrassment in pronouncing colwnha^ hasta, nauta, and 
others, than he has in pronouncing their English equivalents. 
Success is the reward of constant drill led by the teacher. 

The paragraphs on Syllables, Quantity, and Accent should be 
mastered at the beginning, and the knowledge of them used 
constantly. For a class at the end of a year to be unable to 
separate readily words into their syllables and to accent the 
proper syllable is a serious reflection on the w^ork of the teacher. 

Correct pronunciation in the study of Latin, as in other 
languages, is a matter of some weight, but the method is not a 
matter of grave consequence. Only adopt some method and ad- 
here to it. The trouble with most students, and with some teach- 
ers, is that they use a hybrid, mongrel, pronunciation. The two 
most common methods in use are the English and the Roman. 
The Roman is much the simpler, and has in it much to commend 
it. The Roman is rapidly displacing the English everywhere. 
Do not be deterred from using the Roman method by a few cheap 
witticisms sometimes heard from men who regard all innovations 
as heresies. 

In the first year's work, the business of extreme importance 
is the mastery of the forms, and nothing less than their mastery 
can be satisfactory. Until the forms are mastered, the student is 
helpless. In their hurry to get their students to reading Latin, 
teachers too frequently neglect this indispensable drill to the un- 
doing of their students and to their own endless annoyance. To 
do this work successfully requires a fund of patience, and con- 
summate skill in keeping up the interest of the class. 

In mastering the forms several things must be kept constantly 
before the students. AniiOng these are (1) a ready recognition 
of the stem and the terminations of a word, (2) the English 
meanings of the word as indicated by the terminations, and (3) 
the quantity of the vowels in the terminations. "The mere learn- 



78 

ing by heart the declension of a Avord without its English mean- 
ing is a waste of time, and proves a stumbling block to future 
advancement." A student may learn to recite in a parrot-like 
manner the entire conjugation of regere., yet not be able to give 
instantly the English for regit^ t'eget,, regat. He must learn these 
forms, but the forms without the exact meanings will prove of 
little service to him. 

The next most important business of the first year is the ac- 
quirement of a good working vocabulary. "The absolute possess- 
ion of such a vocabulary is indispensable to the knowledge of 
an}^ language." The words of the language — their forms and 
meanings — are the. tools without which no work can be done. 
Without a mastery of forms and a vocabulary, it is impossible 
to read or to translate Latin. The extent of the vocabulary to 
be acquired before leaving the beginner's book is a mooted ques- 
tion. Some authorities recommend as few as 500 words, while 
others recommend as hiirh as 1,500 words. A vocabulary of 1,000 
words is far in excess of what most students have on leaving the 
beginner's book. Were students required to master even 600 
words before leaving the beginner's book, our Latin work would 
be vastly improved. 

Perhaps the majority of Latin teachers give too little time 
to teaching the Beginner's Book. In their hurry to make credits 
they rush their unprejDared pupils into connected reading entirely 
too soon. The average Ist-year high school class of 20 pupils 
carrying more than four major subjects can not master the Be- 
ginner's Book, with daily recitations of 45 minutes, in less time 
than 45 weeks. One of the best private preparatory schools in 
this country gives 45 weeks with 60 minute jDeriods, to the Be- 
ginner's Book. Teachers who rush a class carrying five major 
subjects through the Beginner's Book in 36 weeks, with 40 minute 
periods, usually do not remain in any particular school long 
enough for the Caesar and Cicero reading to betray their in- 
ferior work in the Beginner's Book. 

READING AND TRANSLATING LATIN 

1, Remember that reading Latin and translating it are two 
very distinct processes. One is getting at the thought of the 
writer in a foreign tongue ; the other is turning that thought into 
good modem English. In getting at the thought the reader 
metaphrases, that is, uses literal renderings, but the finished 



79 

translation should never be literal, unless it is at the same time 
idiomatic English. Here lies a strong reason for not beginning 
the study of Latin until the pupil has formed the habit of using 
fairly good English. To translate rosa piiellue est "a rose is to 
the girl," or to render venerunt qui pacem yeterent "they came 
who might seek jDeaoe" is worse than nonsense; it is vicious. On 
this point Dr. Charles W. Bain gives this sound advice : "When 
the translation of connected Latin is begun, nothing but accurate 
and idiomatic English should be allowed. One of the great ad- 
vantages from studying Latin consists in the thinking out of how 
a given j>assage of Latin may be rendered into idiomatic English, 
for the methods of thought of the two people are entirely dif- 
ferent. It is the thought, and not the words, which is to be trans- 
lated, and he who rendei^ a Latin thought into good idiomatic 
English has done good Avork. The mere slavish rendering of 
words from one language into another does little, if any, good." 

Pupils frequently fall into the bad habit of calling the Latin 
words one at a time and after each giving simply the English 
equivalent. Gallia est oiiinis divisa in 'partes f7'es is sometimes 
thus rendered: Gallia-Gaul, est-is, omnis-fill, divha-divided, in- 
into, p'artes-p?iYis, tres-ihrea^. Such renderings are i3ractically 
worthless, and the pupil is not learning Latin. 

Closely akin to slavish literal translations are the slipshod ren- 
derings of many Latin words, such as fides, honor, religio, virtus,, 
id, and others of the same type. The first three of this list do 
not always mean "faith," "honor" and "religion;" the fourth 
rarely ever means "virtue;" and "this thing" for the fifth word 
is meaningless. 

2. However, there is another kind of translation that is even 
Avorse. It is a prostitution of both the Latin and the English 
It consists of a loose, running, sketchy metaphrasing of the 
Latin into English, with no attempt to put the meaning into 
idiomatic English. I have heard it in almost hundreds of I^tin 
recitations, some of them conducted by teachers of reputed abil- 
ity. Time and again I have waited until the close of the reci- 
tation, then asked one or more pupils to give me a written trans- 
lation of what had already been accepted by the teacher. Out 
of perhaps a hundred of these written translations, here are two 
specimens : 

Caesar's Gallic War, Book I, Chapter 49, reads as follows : 

Vhi eum, castris se tenere Ca£sar intellexit, ne diutius o&rm- 



80 

meatn prohiheretur^ ultra eum locum quo in loco Germani con- 
sederant, circUer, ^^assws sexcentes ah his, castris idoneum 
locum dele git, acieque triplici insfyructa ad eum loc^im venit. 
The written English transL^tion given me reads: 
"There Caesar knew that he should keep him from the camp, 
lest that for a rather long time he should be prohibited from 
coming and going, that in either place the Germans hold this 
place. "circle around 600 of paces from these, he should select 
this same place for the camps, and the triple line of battle being 
in array, he should come to this place." 

Cicero's Second Oration against Catiline, Section II, begins as 
follows : 

Ar si q>iis est {talis, quales esse omnes oportehat), qui in hoc 
ipso, in quo exsultat et triumphat oratio inea, m£ vehementer 
accuset, quod tarn cap-italem hostem non comprehenderim potius 
quam emiseiim, non est ista mea culpa, Quirites, sed temporum. 
Interfectum esse L. Catilinam el gravissimo supplico affectum 
jam ])ridem oportehat, idque a me et mos majorum et hujus im- 
2)eri sereritas et res jmhlica postulahat. 

The written English translation given me reads: 
-And if he is of this kind, all ought to be of this kind, which 
in the same thing, in Avhich my oration exults and triumphs, he 
accuses me vehemently because the principal enemy * * =^ ^ 
rather than send him out, that it is not my fault, but of time. 
Lucius Catiline ought to have been killed and treated with the 
greatest punishment a long time ago, both the custom of the 
older ones, and the severity of this power and the republic this 
Avas demanded by me." 

It would be difficult to conceive of any exercise more degrad- 
ing to either the Latin or the English. It is strange how any 
teacher can accept such work and feel that he is teaching any- 
thing. In each of these two cases the teacher was a .college grad- 
uate? There is no law in South Carolina to require any teacher 
to be examined as to his ability to teach Latin. 

3. Whatever parsing of Latin words and idioms is done, nat- 
urally should precede the translation. The translation depends 
upon the constructions, and should follow the parsing. What is 
the need of having pupils parse words and idioms after they 
have been properly translated, unless it is done to detect a ^^ony? 



81 

FOLLOWING THE BEGINNER'S BOOK. 

It is highly desirable that some easy Latin be used in making; 
the transition from the Beginner's Book to Caesar. Any teacher 
will t^ll you that a young pupil encounters difficulties, if he 
goes from the Beginner's Book immediately into Caesar. The 
long sentences in indirect discourse are especially difficult to 
him. The difficulty is ol)viated in a measure by reading Book 
II prior to reading Book I, but easier reading than even Book 
II ought to be read first. This plan defers the more difficult 
passages of indirect discourse, but breaks the continuity of Cae- 
sar's narration. However, it is to l)e feared that many pupils 
utterly fail to see that there is any continuity in the narration. 
The Gnuhitlm^ Lat'ina Porta^ Tlri Rom(K\ and others furnish an 
easy approach to Caesar. 

Caesar has long been accepted as a standard author, although 
there is nothing sacred in the writings of the old Roman. High 
school pupils, especially girls (and they are in the majority), 
do not care for the dry details of camps, campaigns, sieges, bat- 
tles, and harangues to soldiers. The average pupil gets abso- 
lutely nothing coherent out of the details. Many of the best 
authorities wow recommend the use of Nepos to the exclusion 
of Caesar. The Latin of Nepos is little easier than that of Cae- 
sar, but the matter is of more interest to pupils. Fifteen of the 
Lives are the equivalent of four books of Caesar. 

It can hardly be doubted that many high schools undertake to 
read more Latin than can be well done. The four units allotted 
to the Beginner's Book, the first four books of Caesar, the six 
orations of Cicero, and the six books of Vergil seem to me to be 
out of proj)ortiofi to the requirements for other units. I believe 
this to be one of the reasons for so much inferior work in Latin. 
An}^ high school running on 45-minute daily recitation periods, 
for 36 weeks in the year, is doing Avell to master the Beginner's 
Book, the first three books of Caesar, the four orations of Cicero 
against Catiline, and the first four books of Vergil in four yeare. 
Even this quantity can not l>e well done, if the class caiTies more 
than four major subjects at a time. 

The vast majority of the colleges complain bitterly about the 
inferior Latin preparedness which high school pujDils carry with 
them to college. The justice of the complaint is admitted, yet 
many of these colleges are insisting on the prescribed four books 



82 

of Caesar, six orations of Cicero, and six books of Vergil — in- 
sisting on quantity instead of quality. Some teachers do more 
work in reading two books of Caesar than others do in reading 
four. Would it not be better to demand that a school devote 
135 60-minute hours to reading standard Latin than to reading 
specifically four books of Caesar? Is the college interested in 
having a specified number of books in a specified list of authors 
read, or in having pupils come to college with a knowledge of 
Latin sufficient to carry forward their work with ease and intelli- 
gence? 

LATIN COMPOSITION. 

American teachers no longer aspire to make Latin writers out 
of their students. Nevertheless, it is extremely doubtful if any 
other exercise is equal to putting English into Latin as a means 
of learning the structure of Latin sentences and the force of 
Latin words. But the teacher must know Latin before he can 
teach the composition. 

There are many good manuals made to accompany the Cae- 
sar and the Cicero. However, the points stressed in the manual 
from day to day may not be the points that need most to be 
stressed with a particular class. Therefore, many good teach- 
ers prefer bringing their own sentences for illustration and drill. 
This plan has in it much to commend it, provided it is done sys- 
tematically and regularly. 

In a great many schools one recitation period each week is set 
aside for Latin composition. This plan insures regularity. A 
better plan seems to be that of having two or three sentences put 
into Latin at the beginning of every recitation. This insures 
regularity, keeps the composition constantly before the minds 
of the pupils, and enables the teacher to correlate the reading 
and the writing. AVhatever plan is followed two things should 
be kept in mind — have the composition regularly, and avoid long, 
complex sentences. 

Helpful books: 

Bennett & Bristol's The Teaching of Greek and Latin. Long- 
mans. 

MODERN LANGUAGES. 

The term modern languages is usually made to include French, 
German and Spanish, with decided emphasis upon the French 
and German. In fact, up to this time French and German have 



83 

had a monoi>oIy of attention in the high school. Social needs, 
in a broad sense commercial needs, are beginning to place an 
emphasis upon Spanish. Commercial needs must not be inter- 
l>reted to mean the mere knowledge of the language sufficient to 
carry on commercial enterprises. Commerce has been one of the 
great civilizing agencies of the world. Therefore, social needs are 
directly ministered to through commerce. Any two peoples 
si>eaking or understanding a common language or each other's 
language are strongly bound together. Close alliances between 
peoples necessitate a common medium of communication. 

At present German kultur is deservedly at a tremendous dis- 
count throughout the civilized world. It has proved itself to be 
not only a blot and a blast uj^wn civilization, but a curse to man- 
kind and a return to savagery unspeakable. Its teachings are so 
repugnant to the ideals of the American j^eople that everything 
German is shunned. The study of their language, once some- 
what popular in some pai-ts of the United States, has already been 
dropj)ed from hundreds of schools, and will doubtless be dropj^ed 
from almost all. However, we might do well not to overlook 
the fact that there is a notable difference between teaching 
the German language to children as their everyday speech and 
making of the language a mere academic study. Long after the 
German people have been compelled to behave as civilized peo- 
ple their language will be studied by other peoples. Besides, 
it ought to be borne in mind that it was not the German tongue 
that brought about the present horrible conditions, but the doc- 
trines and teachings of the German autocracy. It is no very 
great compliment to American educators and teachers of the 
German language that for years we used in our schools German 
textbooks and German literature of an incendiary type without 
discovering their vileness until after 1914. After all, it may be 
that we shall find it expedient to study the German language for 
the same reason that a French statesman assigned when asked 
why the German language had been recently taught in the 
schools of France. His reply was, "We taught our children that 
language in order that they might understand what the infernal 
scoundrels were up to." 

"•It is a satisfaction to note that in many respects the study of 
modem languages has been gaining in dignity in our schools in 
recent years." One explanation of the delay in giving the proper 
dignity to the study of these languages has been our inability to 



84- 

agree upon the aims in teaching them and upon the methods of 
instruction. The method of instruction depends largely upon the 
aims in teaching a subject. As to the aims there are too widely 
divergent views held by teachers. Some teachers insist that we 
teach modern languages for the disciplinary value that there 
is in them. While others hold that Ave teach them for their 
practical value. Dr. E. S. Joynes, one of the foremost scholars 
and teachers of the past forty years, thus expresses himself on 
the aims and methods: 

"Coming now to the question of the' method of instruction, I 
present to you the conservative — perhaps old-fashioned — view, 
that the teaching of modern languages should be on the same 
lines as of any other language (Latin or English) — that is, for 
discipline and culture — with the single exception, that the attnin- 
nient of a correct pronunciation should l>e made an indispens- 
able feature. I will add that no one should profess to teach a 
modern language who does not possess this accomplishment." 

"This is not the now popular or perhaps the prevailing view. 
Under the influence of foreign — that is, native French and Ger- 
man — teachers, in many schools the chief stress is now laid on 
speaking, with the use of the foreign language in the schoolroom, 
etc., etc. In this view I do not concur, for our American schools. 
In Europe, where to speak at least a smattering of two or three 
languages is important in commercial or social life, such teach- 
ing — with the necessary sacrifice of the higher ends of discipline 
and culture — may be defended. But not so in American schools, 
under our different and happier conditions. Few of our pupils 
will need French or Germian in business, and still fewer. i>er- 
haps, may travel abroad in Europe. Even for these the school 
can teach only the elements of conversation or writing — and for 
this smattering, the new 'reform' method (so-called) sacrifices, 
in my opinion, the higher value of the disciplinars'^ and cultural 
study of the language. The chief aim and effort should be, in 
my opinion, in French or German as in Latin or English, to se- 
cure the highest discipline of langiiage study, with the power to 
read, to nnderstand, and to feel the great masterpieces of litera- 
ture. The effort to teach speaVing — impossible in the classroom 
— should be. left, when needed, to private and personal instruc- 
tion. In this way, modern language becomes a noble and worthy 
element of true education." 



85 

(The two paragraphs just quoted were written in 1007. At 
first ghmce it might appear to some that the conditions of 1918 
are so far removed from anything conceivable in 1907 as to sug- 
gest a revision of Dr. Joynes' views. However, a closer study 
seems to justify the opinion that if Dr. Joynes' views were ten- 
able in 1907, they are reasonably tenable in 1918.) 

Dr. David Snedden maintains an entirely different view as to 
the aims of modern language study, and consequently of the 
method of instruction. He says, ''In teaching modern languages 
we must wholly discard the doctrine of fonnal discipline. As 
found in current defenses of modem language teaching, it is an 
unfortimate heritage from the factitious pedagogy of Latin." 
He continues, ''Following the example of teachers of Latin, it has 
become customaiy on the i>art of some teachers of modem lan- 
guages to expre.ss the general conviction that the study of the 
modern language constitutes a valuable avenue to culture, that 
it reinforces the ability to use English, that it furnishes valuable 
mental discipline, and that it leads to a comprehension of the life 
of other nations, either from the standpoint of its contributions 
to culture or to vocational need. Now., all of these objects, as 
commonly expressed, are vague and more or less intangible, and 
probably have little effect either upon the teaching methods or 
upon the purposes for which the language is studied. * * * I 
think there is almost no evidence that a given amount of time 
spent in the study of a modern language reinforces ability either 
to comprehend or to express English, in anything like the degree 
to Avhich an equal or less amount of time given to the proper 
study of English would contribute. Furthermore, it should be 
recognized that only a small percentage of those of our pupils 
who study French or German, or both, ever reach the point of 
an adequate understanding of the literature of their own tongiie, 
to say nothing of their futile dabblings with that of the other 
language." 

The reader must not hasten to the conclusion that either of 
these men just quoted intends to discourage, even remotely, tlie 
teaching of modern languages in the high school. In fact. Dr. 
Snedden is the author of the opening sentence in the third par- 
agraph of this chapter. However, both these men do raise an 
all-important question Avhich every teacher of modern languages 
should study diligently before putting pupils to study in them. 



86 

Returning once more to the delay in giving dignity to mod- 
ern language study, we do not have far to go to discover a second 
explanation. I take little risk in saying that of all language' 
teachers in the high school, the average teacher of a modem lan- 
guage carries to his work the least special preparation. I have 
found that a fair percentage of teachers of French and German 
in the high schools have had but two years' preparation them- 
selves. And unreasonable as it may sound, I have found two 
teachers of one year's preparation each attempting to teach 
French. Poor preparation on the part of the teacher can not give 
much dignity to the subject he teaches. Teachers are strongly 
urged not to prostitute a noble school subject by attempting to 
teach it with inadequate preparation. If we accept as correct 
what Dr. Joynes says as to the indispensableness of a correct 
pronunciation in teaching a modem foreign language, we must 
admit that many unfit teachers are trying to teach. 

Many educators are of the opinion that any high school should 
be content with offering one modern foreign language. It is 
certain that small high schools should be content with offering 
but one. Unless a school can offer a full course in science, his- 
tory, mathematics, and the other staple subjects, to offer more 
than one modern language is to give undue emphasis to language. 
The efficiency of a high school is to be measured by the pro- 
ficiency of its pupils in the languages pursued, and not by the 
number of languages offered or pursued. 

High school principals are advised not to offer a single year of 
any modern language. Such a course is of exceedingly little 
value to any except those preparing for college entrance, and 
even they will derive comparatively little benefit. To offer a 
single year in a modern language is only another illustration of 
our fundamental weakness in education — a smattering of many 
things and a proficiency in none. On the other hand, every high 
school with adequate teaching force, a comj^etent modern lan- 
guage teacher, and enough pupils to justify it, would do well to 
offer two years or more of a modern language. 

HISTORY. 

History has come to be looked upon as something more than 
"a record of past events." It deals with every phase of the 
institutional life of man — social, political, religious, intellectual, 
and industrial; it has to do with the whole sweep of human 



87 

achievement and human endeavor. Dr. DeGarmo expresses it 
thus: "Fundamentally, history is the story of man and all that 
favors or hindere his progress in well-being — the influences of his 
en\'ironment whether natural or human that have affected him, 
the responses he has made to the stimuli of his environment, the 
institutions he has devised to fix and transmit his advances; in 
short, the whole account of his efforts, mishaps, failures, and suc- 
cesses as a social being." 

One of the erroneous conceptions as to the content of history 
has been to regard the subject as a mere storehouse of facts. 
The study of history involves the getting at facts, but to study 
the subject for the sole purpose of gathering an array of bare 
facts is to err at the very beginning. Facts must be related, 
classified, and interpreted before they can be of value. Unre- 
lated facts or undigested facts are as useless rubbish as ever bur- 
dened a pupil's mind. Certainly a pupil must know tlie facts 
before he can understand their meaning, but the significance of 
the facts is the essential part of the study. 

A few people have attempted to reduce history to a science 
or to a system of philosophy, but such attempts are destined to 
failure. History moves in the realm of the contingent, that is, 
it deals with causes and effects which do not follow the invari- 
able order of natural law. History appeals to the judgment; 
w^ere it otherwise, history study would be an endless chain of 
cold deductions of logic. In history we can not deduce effects 
from given causes with apodictic certainty, as in mathematics, 
but the relations between causes and effects can usually be dis- 
cerned. There is law running through it all, certainly with its 
variations and its deflectionsi, but withal law. 

Dr. H. E. Bourne holds the study of history in high esteem 
as a means of cultivating a proper regard for truth. He says, 
''History, certainly as much as any other object of study, requires 
an intelligent search for truth, and the historian is obliged to 
follow after it through a more difficult way than even the sci- 
entist, because he must hunt among records which often contain 
erroneous statements or wilful distortions of what actually oc- 
curred. * * * * This constant endeavor to discover truth 
must result in an increased respect for it, and in an habitual 
inclination to take some pains to know what it is." 

From but one other subject can a student get a clearer view of 
his duties and obligations toward the State and society at large. 



"It is impossible to look for patriotic feeling from one who is 
ignorant of what his country has stood for in the development 
of civilization/"' Before he can love his country intelligently 
he must understand its institutions and what they stand for. A 
sharp distinction must be made between a species of patriotic 
emotionalism and a sincere devotion to his country's ideals and 
traditions. Besides, history properly taught and properly 
studied cultivates the spirit of tolerance as does no other subject. 
The whole history of the human race is the story of the emanci- 
pation of man from superstition, and from intellectual, polit- 
ical and personal slavery. 

It is exceedingly unfortunate that school histories have been, 
and are yet, given over so largely to the recital of what may 
be called the destructive and the barbarous in man. The kettle- 
drum and trumpet stories do not represent the best that is in 
man. Relatively too much of written history for children has 
}>een confined to the monotonous recital of wars, military cam- 
paigns, the opposing views of political schools, the contentions 
of rival leaders, the rise of political creeds, and the repudiation 
of mere political doctrines. All of these have a place, to be sure, 
but they should not be permitted to usurp the time which should 
be devoted to other matters more vital to young people. The 
evolution of human society is a question far broader than mere 
politics, in the usual sense of that term. The sociological and 
industrial phases of history' have come to be the phases of com- 
manding importance. Statecraft itself can not exist apart from 
these great factors in human society. 

In most histories the lion's share of attention and space is 
given to kings, generals, presidents, and political leaders, ap- 
parently unmindful of the fact that the great average men and 
women have made a good part of the world's history. John 
Richard Green struck a high key in the preface to his ShoJ't His- 
tory of the English Peojyle : "If I have said little of the glories 
of Cressy, it is because I have dwelt much on the w^'ongs and 
misery which prompted the verse of Langland and the preaching 
of Ball. * * * * I have set Shakespeare among the heroes of 
the Elizabethan age, and placed the scientific inquiries of the 
Royal Society side by side with the "sdctories of the New Model. 
If some of the conventional figures of military and political his- 
tory occupy in my pages less than the space usually given them, 
it is because I have had to find a place for figures little heeded 



89 

in common history — the figfiires of the missionary, the poet, the 
printer, the merchant, or the philosopher.'* The real history of 
a country has not been written until every afjency making for its 
growth or its retardation has been recognized and given its 
proper place. No greater mistake could be made than to per- 
mit children to think that only the "first families" have made the 
history of a country. 

Some writers of school histories and many teachers of history 
over-emphasize dates. Of course, dates are important, but there 
are many dates to which but little value can be attached. In 
learning dates the student should be shown how to let the less 
important ones cluster about the more important ones, just as 
he should let the less imiportant events themselves cluster about 
the more important ones. The teacher must help the student 
to understand what lends importance to an event or to a date. 
History teaching that never gets beyond tables of chronology is 
on a low plane. The purchase of Louisiana by the United States 
was a big event. It began an era of territorial expansion on the 
part of the United States. The event is inseparably associated 
with the names of Jefferson and Napoleon. Suppose two stu- 
dents Avere asked for the date of that transaction, and one were 
to give the date — 1803, Avhile the other, unable to give the year, 
were to answer by giving the circumstances surrounding the pur- 
chase and the parts played by both these men ; which would have 
given the better answer Avith respect to the date? Would the 
latter have any difficulty in determining the priority betAveen 
the purchase of Louisiana and the establishment of the United 
States Bank, in Washington's administration, though unable to 
give the year of either? 

Dr. Charles McMurry very happily insists upon dealing Avith 
the large units of study in teaching history. He says, "Large 
units of study are practical thought-centers around Avhich im- 
l>ortant and extensive groupings of knoAvledge can take place. 
Just as Washington is a center from Avhich governmental influ- 
ences stretch out in all directions, so a big unit of study is a 
strategic center from Avhich the mind gets organizing control 
over knoAvledge." Out of the OA^erland trij) of the Turner broth- 
ers in the Avinter of 18-18 as a starting point, he settles not only 
California but the whole Western country, opens up the mines 
of that gi-eat stretch of country, and pushes the story up into 
Alaska. 



&0 

To do this kind of work successfully requires some organ- 
izing power on the part of the teacher. If the teacher 
does not possess this power, it is doubtful if he would suc- 
ceed in teaching liistory with any plan or method. In Ste- 
phenson's American History, the State adopted text for South 
Carolina, Chapter XXIX, the .following paragraph topics fol- 
low rather closely: The Payment of the Debt, Readjustment of 
Business, A New Type of Business Man, A New Power, The 
Centennial Year, The Opening of the West, The West and 
the Corporations, Labor Troubles, The Government in Business, 
Favoritism of the Railroads, The Tariff Question Revived, Con- 
gress and the Trusts. What is the large topic running through 
all these? To study these smaller topics as isolated affairs and 
to recite them independently on the recitation is almost wasted 
time. 

Take another example: We know that to the wildernesses of 
America came thousands of men and women from Europe dur- 
ing the seventeenth century. We wonder why these men and 
women left their native lands, their own homes, and their kin- 
dred to settle in a wilderness. We begin to look for attractions 
in America. In the twentieth century America attracts people 
from every quarter of the globe, but it was not so attractive in 
the earlier years of the seventeenth century. There must have 
been some repelling force at work in Europe. Let us go to the 
facts; here are some: 

(a) Under Henry VIII great numbers of discharged soldiers 
foimd themselves without work, and w^ere compelled to beg. 
They looked to the monasteries for scanty support; Henry de- 
stroyed the monasteries, leaving the beggars without means of 
support. 

(b) In the reign of Edward VI the unenclosed lands of Eng- 
land were seized by the nobles and fenced in for sheep-pastures, 
and rents rose in many cases tenfold, thus making pauper peas- 
ants out of the small farmers. 

(c) After the destruction of the Spanish Armada, in the reign 
of Elizabeth, thousands of idle soldiers were again turned loose 
in England, and many of them were driven to robbery. 

(d) In 1601, England enacted a Poor Law which required all 
able-bodied men to labor for their own support. Not a few re- 
fused to work, and chose what they regarded as an easier way to 
support themselves, and fear of the gallows did not deter them. 



91 

(e) As is frequently the case, many men of comparative 
wealth had lost their fortunes and wished to rebuild them. 

(f) The sixteenth century had aroused a spirit of daring and 
adventure in the j^eople throughout Europe. 

(g) All Europe was chafing more or less under religious op- 
pression. 

Putting together all these facts, are we not in a position to 
interpret their effect upon the settlement of America? 

Is it at all difficult for the pupil to see the large topic running 
through these events? In the same manner how interesting and 
profitable for a class to trace the development of agricultural im- 
plements from the rude stone axe and stick plow and wooden 
flail to the modern traction cultivator and grain harvester. In 
the highest class, pupils could in the same manner trace the 
course of absolutism and democracy in government. 

To teach history well requires considerable knowledge of the 
subject, a taste for it, a spirit of tolerance and patience in get- 
ting at the truth, and skill in handling a class. All these 
are qualifications which any teacher may cultivate and ulti- 
mately ix>ssess. Time and effort will bring success. To carry 
to the study either indifference or prejudice Avill be fatal to any- 
thing like success. The student will attack the subject in the 
same spirit the teacher approaches it. 

The teacher can not depend upon the textbook to do his teach- 
ing for him. The best of textbooks furnish the mere skel- 
eton. Whatever of flesh and blood and life be given the teach- 
ing, the teacher himself must furnish. In history the teacher 
may succeed gloriously or fall ignominiously, almost as he elects 
to do. In no other high school subject has he a finer opportu- 
nity to make the recitation hour count for something large and 
vital, or to fritter away the time on things trivial and puerile. 
Should he lend an intelligent enthusiasm and wholesome guid- 
ance to the class, and give broad and comprehensive signifi- 
cance to the subject, he may hojoe for abundant success; should 
he carry to the subject a lamentable ignorance fortified by preju- 
dice, and a dullness of manner that chills the student, he may 
look for nothing but failure. 

Some parallel reading is necessary to the success of history 
study in the high school, but care must be exercised in both the 
kind and the amount required. Students on entering the high 
school, especially in the eighth school year, are neither mature 



92 

enough nor trained enough to do very much profitable parallel 
reading in history. Whatever parallel reading is assigned 
should be very definite, and should bear directly upon the mat- 
ter in hand. Do not be continually lugging in extraneous mat- 
ter; such a course may indicate that you knoAv a great deal of 
history, but it also indicates that you do not know much about 
teaching it. Parallel reading does not mean that the student 
should be given the same thing to be read over in different 
places or in different books. The student is seeking additional 
light on a given point, not repeated light. Some teachers think 
they are giving parallel reading when they require students to 
read the same thing from two or three histoiy texts. Such a 
course may bewilder the student instead of enlightening him, 
since different texts may approach a given historical question 
from as many viewpoints. 

Xo very successful history teaching can be done without at 
least a small reference library and a few good historical maps. 
The discussion of a suitable reference library is too big to be 
treated in a little manual like this. Any library to be service- 
able must be used freely and intelligently. Pupils must be 
taught hoAV to use books. Left to roam at will through a library, 
they get but little. Any pupils of this age are not going to use 
books dealing with the dry details of military campaigns, dis- 
sertations on the science of government, and arguments on ab- 
struse political doctrines — no matter how valuable such books 
may be to mature students. 

Suitable magazines properly used are exceedingly valuable as 
supplementary work in history teaching. They must be well 
selected and used with care. More than one-half the so-called 
parallel reading from magazines is almost time thrown away. 
Pupils in many instances skim, through these periodicals without 
aim or guidance. They read what tickles their fancy, and get 
nothing after all. They soon come to look upon their parallel 
reading as a joke — and they are right. Unless you are sure that 
you know how to use magazines properly, let them alone. 

Good maps in the hands of a competent teacher are of the 
highest practical value; an incompetent teacher has no use for 
maps of any kind — ^lie could not use them, if he had them. In 
most schools the main use of maps seems to be for decorative 
purposes. Historical maps to be serviceable must show the 
geography contemporaneous with the history. "Correct modern 



93 

maps with ancient names printed on them are not only Avorth- 
less but misleading."' For a high school student to undertake 
to understand the geography of Columbus' day from a study 
of a modern map of the world would be as difficult to him as to 
reconstruct Milton's universe. 

Some otherwise good teachers waste valuable time in having 
pupils laboriously trace outline maps. After such tracing has 
been religiously done, Avhat have the pupils acquired? Map 
drawing as an end is a very doubtful acqiusition — not much 
above that of Oliver Wendell Holmes' man who could back his 
ears. Instead of having pupils spend time drawing or tracing 
imperfect maps, why not have them study a good map. If a 
pupil has acquired the data necessary for making or tracing a 
map, what has he added to his stock of knowledge by tracing 
it? The map is the teacher's tool rather than the pupil's goal. 
Let the pupils learn to read maps. 

There are a few donts I would give to histoiy teachers. 

(a) Don't make the mistake of requiring elaborate and 
lengthy notes. Re(piire but few, and let these be of some aid 
to the pupils. Transcribing material from books and magazines 
is not note taking. 

(b) Whatever other pedagogical sins you may commit, don't 
lecture to pupils. But if you must lecture, don't ask pupils to 
take notes of your lectures. 

(c) Don't give over the histor}^ time to current events that 
have little or no relation to the history work. Some current 
events are not worth much. Not a few teachere waste time on 
current events that are of little value. 

(d) Don't permit your pupils to commit the text to memory. 
Be careful that your manner of conducting the recitation does 
not invite this error. If you ask only for what the textbook 
gives, your pupils will soon fall into the habit of beginning 
every answer with "It says." The pupil wdio begins every an- 
swer with "It says'' is getting nothing but ''it says.'' 

(e) Don't prostitute history teaching by asking such empty 
questions as ''What can you tell me about (Arnold's Treason, or 
the Missouri Compromise, or the Tariff) ?" 

(f) Don't be continually asking for the "turning point" in 
some war or battle. Such questions suggest a poverty of history 
material. 



94 

(g) Don't ask for all the important battles of a given year, 
together with the generals on both sides, unless you have no 
other questions to ask. 

(h) Don't begin a recitation with such an aimless question as, 
"What did you find that interested you?" Such a question comes 
from only an unthinking teacher. 

(i) Don't be provincial in your teaching. Get at least beyond 
the borders of your own State. Don't waste time challenging 
the statement that Fulton invented the steamboat by trying to 
prove that some person in your county really had a steamboat 
on 'his father's mill pond several months previous. Leave that 
kind of thing to the person who has nothing to do but dig in 
cemeteries. 

(j) Don't begin the study of any section of history until the 
class is familiar with the geography of that country and knows 
something of the people themselves. 

(k) Don't make a reading lesson out of a history recitation. 
There are times when you can profitably carry on your recitation 
with open books before the pupils for the purpose of making 
cross references, but to make a reading lesson of the recita- 
tion is absolutely worthless as a history recitation. 

THE COURSE IN HISTORY. 

Within the past fifteen years much attention has been given 
throughout the country to the arrangement of the course in his- 
tory. Four years of history in a 4-year high school has been 
the most popular plan, and the order has been Greek and Ro- 
man history. Medieval and Modem history, English history, 
and American history. In a 3-year school the order has been 
Greek and Roman history, English histor}^, and American his- 
tory. The best high schools of the country have come to re- 
gard three years of history in a 4-year school sufficient, and two 
years enough in a 3-year school. 

There are several strong arguments in favor of this plan. In 
the first place, as has already l>een pointed out, history easily 
lends itself to poor teaching. A teacher and a class can skim 
through a year in history with very little effort and with less 
profit. Such a school piles up units rapidly without doing much 
genuine work. In the next place, it is a serious question if one- 
fourth of the pupil's time can be devoted to history in the face of 
other demands upon his time. Finally, it is desirable to lighten 



95 

the curriculum in the first year of the high school, since Latin 
is usually taken up in this year, and algebra frequently taken up. 
There is danger of overloading the pupils in the first year. 

Good textbooks suited to the 3-year course in history have 
already appeared. The new order with tlie new texts are Ancient 
history in the second year of the high school, Modern history in 
the third year, and American history in the fourth year. In a 
3-year high school American history would be given in the third 
ye^r, and either Ancient or Modern history in the second year. 
The newer type of Modern history gives much more atten- 
tion to England and Continental Europe than the common type 
of Medieval and Modern history. 

CIVICS. 

Civics as an independent subject is a comparatively new one. 
In teaching the subject we have two aims or purposes: 1. To 
give the pupil a working knowledge of the mechanism of gov- 
ernment; 2. To give him some insight into his obligations as an 
individual in society. 

In a country where manhood suffrage prevails, as in the 
United States, it is of vital importance that every citizen should 
have an intelligent knowledge of the workings of the ordinary 
machinery of government. Thousands of our people reach the 
the age at which they are expected to participate in the privi- 
leges and obligations of citizenship in almost total ignorance 
of governmental affairs. Thousands of citizens are ignorant of 
such things as the sources of revenue for government support-, 
the channels through which taxes are levied and collected, and 
the disbursement of revenue. To many of our citizens the con- 
stitution of the State and that of the United States are sealed 
documents. 

While an intimate knowledge of the machinery of government 
is highly desirable, and necessary to intelligent citizenship, there 
is another phase of civics far more important. Citizens igno- 
rant of their duties and obligations to the State and society can 
not render their best service. The making of good citizens is the 
chief function of the public schools. It comes before mental 
training, vocational training, or anytliing else. In the history 
of the world there has never before been a time when the teach- 



96 

ing of citizenship, patriotism, if you please, was more impor- 
tant. Heretofore we have depended hirgely upon singing patri- 
otic songs, floating flags over school houses, and the like, all 
good enough in their way, to imbue children with patriotic feel- 
ing. True patriotism and serviceable citizenship rest upon 
things more fundamental than mere ceremonies. Citizens must 
deal with realities. What is the duty of a citizen with respect 
to his voting — is it a privilege or a duty ? What is his duty with 
respect to supporting the institutions of the government — edu- 
cation, asylums, orphanages, public roads, water w^orks, bridges, 
fire departments, public health and libraries? What are his 
duties toward corporations, such as railroads, express compa- 
nies and telegraj^h companies? Do they exist as public utilities 
for the service of the people and as a source of reasonable rev- 
enue to their owners, are they monopolies for the sole benefit of 
their owners, or are they the objects of attack and oppression 
at the hands of the people? Should such utilities be under pri- 
vate ownership and control, under government ownership and 
control, or merely under government control? What is the citi- 
zen's duty toward honest tax returns and jury duty? Upon such 
things as these depend the permanency of our government. In 
the United States the people are the government. Therefore, 
the people must know these things and be guided by that knowl- 
edge, if our government is to be permanent and beneficent. These 
are far more vital things than the learning if magistrates get 
fees or stipulated salaries, or learning about the working of the 
electoral college. 

MATHEMATICS 

Among the so-called practical subjects of the secondary school 
mlathematics ranks among the highest in the popular mind. For 
many years the subject has been held in high esteem as a disci- 
pline for the young. On this point Dr. DeGarmo comments 
thus: "The reason is not far to seek, for the world is so con- 
stituted that it can not be apprehended without some means 
for discovering and measuring its quantitative relations. In the 
early days of reflection, when men began to search for bottom 
principles in the constitution of things, it was inevitable that 
they should come to the ideas of number and form as necessary 
to the very existence of the world, for wdiatever fills space and 
time must be subject to geometrical and numerical laws." 



97 

Chapter II, pages 9-52, of Young's The Teaching of Mathe- 
matics is devoted to the Value of the Study of Mathematics. 
In discussing the facts of mathematics, the author asserts, "There 
is no subject, except the use of the mother- tongue, which is so 
intimately connected with everyday life, and so necessary to the 
successful conduct of affairs. Wherever we turn in these days 
of iron, steam and electricity, we find that mathematics has been 
the pioneer and guarantees results." 

No one questions the immense value of mathematics as a prac- 
tical subject, yet it is evident that "the average man fails to real- 
ize how elementary is the mathematics used or needed by men 
of even more than moderate education, exclusive of specialists 
in certain vocations. The subject is frequently overrated as a 
mere practical subject. 

Mathematics as a mode of thought is more valuable than as a 
practical subject. "Mathematics is a science of necessary con- 
clusions." The conditions given, the conclusions are certain. 
However, some authorities protest against the over-valuation of 
mathematics as an exercise in applied logic. O'ne of them re- 
marks: "Among the educated classes we meet everywhere the 
error that mathematics is chiefly useful in education as applied 
logic, even if it is limited to a minimum content. This error 
finds its explanation in a number of circumstances, of which two 
are of especial importance: first, in the common ignorance of 
the manifoldness of mental processes, methods, and ideas in- 
volved in secondary mathematics, and, second, in the erroneous 
conception of the notion of formal discipline, which does not per- 
ceive that form and content are inseparably united." 

Granted that mathematics is erroneously overrated as applied 
logic, the abstract logic of the subject remains unchallenged, 
and, although the reasoning may be severe, it is also simple. 
"Indeed," says a recent writer, "the whole subject rests upon a 
half-dozen axioms and a few postulates. The solution of the 
most difficult problem in algebra rests primarily upon the equa- 
tion and its preservation." Besides, mathematics is progressive; 
the axioms and principles of arithmetic hold good in all mathe- 
matics; algebra takes the principles of arithmetic and gen- 
eralizes them, then proceeds to widen the circle of reasoning. 
Abstract logic requires almost no memorizing. The formulas 
constitute almost the only legitimate field for the memory. 



98 

Mathematics develops a certain kind of imagination, as in the 
study of geometry and architecture!, but it should be remembered 
that the imagination of the mathematician and that of the poet 
are widely unlike. One is the imagination of reason, the other 
of feeling. 

ARITHMETIC. 

Considering the amount of time spent upon arithmetic in 
American schools, there is no other subject from which we get 
more barren results. During the first three years of school life 
it holds a place second only to reading. During the following 
four years it holds a place second to nothing in point of time or 
attention. Yet, after seven years of study, with daily recita- 
tions, the great majority of pupils have only a vague notion of 
the meaning of arithmetic and its applications to the common 
affairs of life about them. They pay an exorbitant price for a 
meager knowledge of the subject. Something should be done, 
if possible, to get larger returns from the outlay, or to get the 
same returns from a smaller outlay. 

This is hardly the place to discuss primary teaching, but it 
seems to me that whatever reform is undertaken must begin in 
the elementary school and reach up into the high school. A 
large percentage of our best teaching is found in our elementary 
schools, yet much of the arithmetic work in them is unsatisfac- 
tory. The more I observe pupils and teaching the more I am 
impressed with the conviction that pupils are set to work in 
arithmetic too early. Many young children give early evidence 
of precocity in dealing with numbers, and this precocity and 
our admiration of it betray us into making grave mistakes. Is 
it wise to put children to studying arithmetic before they learn 
to read well enough to interpret the questions easily? Would 
not time be saved by deferring the beginning of arithmetic at 
least a year later than is customary? 

I would make no appeal for anything like what is called the 
science of arithmetic to be taught in the elementary school, but 
there are a few cardinal principles which must be understood, if 
pupils are to make an intelligent study of the subject. Among 
these are: 1. The meaning of a unit; 2. The significance of place 
value; 3. The meaning of a fraction; 4. The constant use of a 
few of the axioms ; 5. The value of the equation and its constant 



99 

use; 6. A clear distinction between the process and the operation 
in the solution of any problem. 

The average sixth grade pupil has a very hazy conception of 
the meaning of a unit or the significance of place value. As to 
the former, ascertain his conception of a square foot or a cubic 
yard as a unit of measurement. As to the latter, ask him to mul- 
tiply 275 by 34, and to begin by multiplying by the 3 tens. He 
will likely eye you with some alarm as to your sanity. In deci- 
mals ask him to divide 10,66 by 2.3, and to give you the reason 
for the location of the decimal point. In most cases he will tell 
you that the quotient has in it as many decimal places as the 
decimal places in the dividend exceed those in the divisor. He 
has spent more time in learning an utterly meaningless rule than 
would have been required to learn the real reason for placing the 
decimal point. 

To man}^ pupils fractions are mysteries long after they have 
gone over the subject. Give a sixth grade pupil the cost of 4-5 
of a pound of sugar and ask him to give you the cost of 7-8 of 
a i^ound, and you will very probably find his knowledge of frac- 
tions is badly confused. Or, ask him to divide one fraction by 
another fraction, then listen to his explanation of his work. 
The work is to him purely mechanical, and he accepts results 
on faith. 

The statement that the whole subject of mathematics rests 
upon a few axioms has already been made, and doubtless we all 
agree to it. Nevertheless, how rarely one hears an axiom men- 
tioned in the arithmetic recitation. Have the axioms any more 
significance in algebra than in arithmetic? 

In arriving at the statement of a problem in the shape of an 
equation the pupil is compelled to see the problem in its en- 
tirety. For a pupil to attack any problem before he sees it in 
its entirety is simply guess-work. The equation is simply the 
process pictured ready to begin the operation. 

In some quarters there is a strong tendency to drop the study 
of arithmetic on entering the high school even where the high 
school begins with the eighth grade. I can not help believing 
this exceedingly unfortunate. Pupils on leaving the grammar 
grades are not mature enough to get out of arithmetic what they 
should. Some teachers contend that a pupil will learn more 
arithmetic in a few weeks in actual business than he will learn 
in as many months in school. Perhaps so, but business men are 



100 

already complaining that they must do for these youngsters 
what the teachers are supposed to do for them. Instead of 
dropping arithmetic on entering the high school, it would be 
better if we could arrange to give our pupils at least a half year 
in arithmetic after the second year in the high school, when the 
pupils are mature enough to appreciate the meaning of the ad- 
vanced work. 

Suggestions. 

1. Arithmetic is a branch of an exact science, and has noth- 
ing in common with the puzzle page of the newspaper. Do not 
waste valuable time and prostitute a science by working at 
mathematical puzzles, and have the courage politely to decline 
all challenges to do so. You may safely decline all challenges, 
if you are prepared to solve the legitimate problems that come 
in your way. The neighborhood arithmetic genius, or the arith- 
metic crank, may be able to do some marvelous things, but do 
not permit his genius to disturb your logic. The genius might 
find some difficulty in teaching some one else to perform his 
feats. 

2. Above everything else your teaching should foster cogent 
thinl^ing. Teachers and pupils are constantly tempted to take 
short cuts. Beware how you use them in teaching. Superin- 
tendent S. H. Edmunds very happily says: "In arithmetic, 
short methods should always be the resultant of reason, and as 
such they may serve a legitimate purpose. But let no one think 
that a student is, or ever will be, a mathematician who makes 
this means an end." The schoolmaster's business is not pri- 
marily to teach the six per cent, method of reckoning interest, 
but to teach the principles of percentage applied to reckoning in- 
terest. After the student has mastered these principles, he may 
use short cuts with propriety and profit in actual business. 

3. Pupils should be trained to make a sharp distinction be- 
tween the process and the operation in the solution of a prob- 
lem. All the logical thinking in the solution of a problem is 
focused on the process, which consists in seeing clearly and at one 
view the relations of all the factors in the problem. The opera- 
tion is solely a matter of making a few simple calculations in the 
four fundamentals of arithmetic. A student who has been well 
taught will not undertake any part of the operation until he 
has passed before his mind the whole process involved, while the 



101 

poorly taught student begins by experimenting with the factors 
given and feeling his way toward an ansAver. 

4. The equation is as important in arithmetic as it is in alge- 
bra. In so-called written arithmetic, the written equation is the 
unmistakable evidence that the student sees all the relations 
of the factors involved in his problem l)€fore he begins his cal- 
culations. 

5. For logical work, for accurate work, for rapid work — all 
highly desirable — oral recitations in arithmetic are superior to 
written recitations. Enough written work is desirable and nec- 
essary to keep pupils familiar with the forms of arithmetical 
expression. Nothing is more conducive to slow and lifeless work 
than to have all arithmetic work done on blackboards or tablets. 
What is more dreary and uninteresting than to watch a half- 
dozen or more pupils, each with a different problem, scrawling 
their half-digested work on a blackboard? Nobody is doing 
any alert thinking, and there is nothing to evoke it. This 
lifeless manner of teaching arithmetic is largely the outgrowth 
of overworked teachers attempting to conduct more than one 
recitation at a time, and of incompetent teachers permitting the 
pupils to teach themselves as best they may, 

C). For the teaching of arithmetic orally, the ordinary written 
arithmetic text is all that is needed. On what logical ground 
has arithmetic l>een divided into two kinds? To confine the oral 
work to the short questions given in the oral text is to defeat 
in a measure one of the prime objects in all teaching, that of 
gaining the power to grasp and hold in the mind the relations 
existing between several factors in a problem. Of course, long 
and tedious calculations must be reduced to written form, and 
neatness and accuracy should be rigidly required. 

7. Perhaps the chief difficulty any student has in solving his 
arithmetic problems is due to his inability to read a problem 
intelligently. Until he can grasp readily the meaning of an 
English sentence, his interpretation of arithmetic will be uncer- 
tain. Often the interpretation of an arithmetic problem turns 
upon the grammatical construction of the sentence embodying 
the problem. 

8, Once our arithmetics were burdened with useless topicsj, 
such as alUgatimi and circulating decimals^ but modern texts 
have been pruned of most of such topics. However, there is, 
in the opinion of many practical teachers, need of further pnm- 



102 

ing. The teacher will find a brief discussion of this subject on 
pages 219-223 of Young's book already mentioned. 

9. Very recently there has arisen in some places a demand for 
an arithmetic adapted to particular vocations. The laws of 
arithmetic, as of all other branches of mathematics, are universal 
and eternal. There seems to be but little argument for a school 
arithmetic prepared especially for any particular vocation. All 
that is necessary is to adapt the principles and laws of arith- 
metic to whatever vocation has need to use them. This is the 
business of the teacher. The teacher in the midst of an agricul- 
tural people has only to adapt the arithmetic to that people in 
the terms of farm life. The same would be true of the teacher 
in a mining section, a trucking section, or a manufacturing sec- 
tion. The same principles and laws nm through the calculations 
of the farmer, the merchant, the lawyer, the day laborer and all 
others. They differ only in their adaptation. The same laws of 
harmony run through all music, whether it be that produced by 
the trained choir or by the man behind the plow; the laws of 
physics are universal, but they may be adapted to build a can- 
tilever bridge or to swing a gate. Concrete work is necessary to 
all good teaching in arithmetic, and the local surroundings of 
the school furnish the material for the concrete teaching. The 
country roads and lanes furnish ample opportunity to apply 
the teaching of linear measure, the field ditches for the teach- 
ing of cubic measure, the fields and gardens for teaching land 
measure, the field crops for teaching bookkeeping, percentage, 
and interest. Other opportunities without number are offered 
in the vicinity of every schoolhouse. 

ALGEBRA. 

What algebra is and why it is taught are two important ques- 
tions. Upon the answers to these two questions depend the an- 
swers to three others — when to begin the study of algebra, how 
to teach, it, and how long to continue it. The first two questions 
are discussed rather fully in Chapter VII of Smith's The Teach- 
ing of Elementary Mathematics. 

All agree that algebra embraces the generalizations of arithme- 
tic. The writer just mentioned says that the first of the spe- 
cial functions of algebra is, "To establish more carefully and 
extend theoretic processes of arithmetic." He gives as the third 
function, "To develop the equation and to apply it in the solu- 



103 

tion of problems of a wide range of interest, including large 
classes of problems relative to geometry^, to physics, and other 
natural sciences." Indeed, it is difficult to draw the line of demar- 
cation between arithmetic and algebra on the one hand, and 
between algebra and the higher branches of mathematics and the 
sciences on the other hand. "The child who meets the expres- 
sion 2X(?)=8, in the first grade, has touched the elements of 
algebra. The student of algebra who is called upon to simplify 
(2-f ^3) (2 — V3) is facing merely a problem in arithmetic." 

Teachers who introduce no algebraic methods in their arith- 
metic teaching before taking up algebra, then introduce algebra 
as an entirely new subject, may expect their pupils to meet dif- 
ficulties. On the other hand, pupils who are taught to use the 
axioms, the equation, and other algebraic methods in their arith- 
metic work, not later than the sixth grade, will have no trouble 
on taking up algebra. Such pupils will readily understand that 
they are taking up nothing new. In fact, the transition will be 
so gradual as to be scarcely noticeable. The special teaching 
points in beginning algebra are to show pupils that they are to 
generalize specific statements and to introduce symbols in the so- 
lution of these statements. 

Algebra as a distinct subject is valuable, but there is room 
for serious doubt if it should be a required subject for all pupils 
further than to quadratics. There are many pupils who get 
but little out of the subject beyond this point. Mention has 
already been made of the meager returns from the long years 
spent on arithmetic. The results in algebra are open to the 
same criticism. Many schools spend three years on algebra, and 
many more spend two and a half years. A total of ten to eleven 
years on arithmetic and algebra together seems unreasonable. In 
any event it seems wise to leave off the study of algebra in the 
high school at or with the Binomial Theorem. Leave Log- 
arithms. Permutations, and the like to the colleges, where they 
are more serviceable and where they can be better taught. 

Suggestions. 

1. If possible, avoid taking up algebra and Latin at the same 
time. Take algebra first. If the arithmetic has been taught 
as already suggested, there is no reason why algebra should not 
be begun in the seventh grade. The middle of the seventh grade 
is an opportune time. 



104 

'2. P'actoring' has been felicitously called the multiplication 
table of algebra. Persistent drill in factoring is absolutely nec- 
essary to success. Until pupils reach the point in factoring 
where they take in at a glance the factors of a quantity, without 
stopping to think of the type to which it belongs, their work 
will be slow and uncertain. 

3. In dealing with the minus sign make it clear to pupils that 
it has two meanings — that of a symbol of operation, and that of 
quality. The average high school pupil has little conception 
of the real meaning of multiplication or division when the minus 
sign is involved. Wliat has he learned when he is told that 
quantities with like signs multiplied together give a product 
with a plus sign, or with unlike signs give a product with a 
minus sign ? 

4. Rapid oral work in algebra is just as profitable as in arith- 
metic. Do not spend five minutes putting on a blackboard what 
can be just as well done orally in one minute. 

5. Do not make the mistake of omitting the solution of prob- 
lems. This is the most important part of the algebra. Here 
is where the pupil's j^owers of insight are tested. If he is not 
logical in working out the statement of a problem, his knowledge 
of algebra does not avail him much. The solving of the ordinary 
examples, or exercises, in the textbook is a mere matter of me- 
chanics. 

6. Almost every textbook in algebra clings to at least a few 
of the antiquated and worthless i^roblems of the hare and hound 
type. For such problems do not hesitate to substitute others 
of merit. Mathematical antics are not the goal in algebra study. 
There are too many jDractical and valuable problems all about 
you to waste time on improbable and worthless ones. Prob- 
lem 42 on page 169 of the State adopted textbook makes one won- 
der what would be done with a merchant guilty of such a per- 
formance as that described in it. 

PLANE GEOMETRY. 

"Geometry, perhaps more than any other subject of secondary' 
school mathematics, offers opportunity for attaining all the ends 
of the teaching of mathematics, and hence there is less occasion 
to regard any one of them as specially the goal of geometry. It 
gives ample occasion for exact reasoning, for real induction 
applied to very simple data, for correlation with other work, 



105 

Avith drawing, geography and the physical sciences as well as 
with algebra, for exercise of the space intuition, for practical 
applications, for drill in numerical computation, for training to 
habits of neatness and exactitude, and for the cultivation of the 
powers of precise thought and expression." Perhaps every suc- 
cessful teacher of geometry Avould subscribe to this statement of 
the practical and cultural value of the subject. Over against all 
this, it is but simple truth to say that geometry may be so ill 
taught and so ill learned as to disgust the student with all sub- 
sequent mathematical study. 

Plane geometry in most high schools is assigned to the third 
year, after two years of algebra. From the nature of geometry 
in its relation to algebra, it may Avell be given parallel with alge- 
bra in the second year. Many of the best teachers so arrange 
the course in miathematics. The chief argument against this 
arrangement is that it prolongs the study of algebra through 
at least three full years. 

Suggestions. 

1. See that your class begins geometry in an intelligent way. 
Do not assign a lesson with a few general remarks, and leave 
the pupils to learn it as best they can. Teach carefully a few 
geometrical terms and definitions. Take some very simple prop- 
osition; stat« clearly what is given and equally clearly what is 
to be proved; Avith the axioms and the definitions constantly 
before the class, proceed step by step to build up a demonstra- 
tion. Be sure that the class fully understands where the begin- 
ning point is, and see that it begins there. As the demonstration 
]Drogresses let each step be set down on the board in full vicAv 
of the class. Keep this up until the point to be proved is reached, 
and be sure that the class recognizes the goal when it is reached. 
At first take nothing for granted. Next, erase the demonstra- 
tion, re-letter the figure or place it in a different position, and 
go slowdy through the demonstration without writing down any- 
thing but Avhat is given and the point to be pi-oved. A very 
few days of this kind of work wiU give your class an intelligent 
start. 

•2. Designate each line and angle of a figure by a letter or a 
figure. Do not waste time talking about angle BAC when it can 
be designated as angle a or angle 2. 



106 

3. Have all figures drawn accurately. Nothing could be more 
absurd than to draAV a figure that contradicts the truth to be 
demonstrated. 

4. In drawing a figure to demonstrate a proposition, begin 
with nothing but what is given in the proposition itself. Let the 
figure grow as the demonstration proceeds. For instance, if a 
pupil is asked to bisect a straight line, let him begin his demon- 
stration with that line. Train your pupils from the beginning 
to build up the figure as they proceed with the demonstration, 
and to tell the class as they go what they are doing and why 
they are doing it. 

5. Do not send three, four, or a half-dozen pupils to the boards 
at once and with different propositions to demonstrate. Instead, 
send one, give him the proposition, and have him demonstrate it 
and tell the class as he goes what he is doing. This is the only 
way by which the teacher can ascertain just how the pupil's 
mind works. 

6. As a rule do not waste time writing out demonstrations on 
boards. Require pupils to stand on their feet and show the class 
what they are doing. Let them use a pointer and their tongues. 

7. The so-called original propositions are worth more than 
all the demonstrated propositions in the book. Learning the 
demonstrated propositions is nothing more than reading some 
one else's work. 

8. Do not let a class be satisfied with a single demonstration of 
a proposition. 

9. In most textboolcs are a few propositions which approach 
axioms so nearly as to make demonstrations almost absurd. Be 
sure that your pupils recognize such. 

10. Five books of plane geometry, with at least one-half of the 
originals, will require every day of 36 weeks with daily recita- 
tions of 45 minutes. 

Helpful books: 

Schult-ze's Teaching of M atheniatics in Secondary Schools. 
Macmillan. 

Smith's Teaching of Geometi^j. Ginn. 

NATURAL SCIENCE. 

Spencer places the study of natural science above that of 
every other subject. In his enumeration of the benefits eman- 
ating from a study of science, he emphasizes these: The pres- 



107 

ervation of human life and the enjoyment of human life depend 
upon a knowledge of science; a knowledge of physiology and 
anatomy and the laws of health preserves our lives; and in all 
the industries of men the sciences serve as the bases. Spencer's 
aims of education are usually regarded as severely utilitarian. 
This notion is in a measure erroneous. He states very clearly 
that acquirement of every kind has two values — value as knowl- 
edge and value as discipline. His contention is that science is 
superior to other subjects as discipline, inasmuch as the student 
deals with things instead of words. This view is held by many 
men in no sense partial to the sciences. 

President Eliot {Educatiomd Reform, 110-111) says: "The 
last subject for which I claim admission to the magic circle of 
the liberal arts is natural science. All the subjects which the 
sixteenth century decided were liberal, and all the subjects which 
I have heretofore discussed, are studied in boolcs; but natural 
science is to be studied not in books but in things. The student 
of languages, lettere, philosophy, mathematics, history, or polit- 
ical economy, reads books, or listens to the words of his teacher. 
The student of natural science scrutinizes, touches, weighs, meas- 
ures, analyzes, dissects, and watches things. By these exercises 
his powers of observation and judgment are trained, and he 
acquires the precious habit of observing the appearances, trans- 
formations, and processes of nature. Like the hunter and the 
artist, he has open eyes and educated judgment in seeing. He is 
at home in some large tract of nature's domain. Finally, he ac- 
quires the scientific method of study in the field, where that 
method was originally perfected." 

In all this there is no attempt to prove the superiority of the 
sciences over other subjects. All that is desired is to secure mer- 
ited recognition for them. The fundamental distinctions be- 
tween the humanities and the natural sciences have been epi- 
tomized somewhat as follows: "The humanities deal with causes 
and effects due in part to subjective or psychic forces, while the 
natural sciences deal with causes and eifects due to mechanic 
and chemic forces, wholly uninfluenced by man. The mental 
effect of the study of natural law awakens enthusiasm, discards 
authority, and trusts to reason in searching for natural law." 
The alchemist, hunting the elixir of life and attempting to trans- 
mute the baser metals into gold, discovered natural law and 
became a scientist— a chemist. The astrologer, seeking signs in 



108 

the heavens for his guidance in affairs earthly, discovered sys- 
tem and natural law and became a scientist — an astronomer. 

The sciences offer an exceedingly rich field for the high school. 
Physiology, biology, physical geography, physics and chemistry 
are excellent, available subjects. The plant and animal life and 
the mineral wealth of the counti*y are plentiful in gi^eat variety; 
public health and sanitation have become a national battlecry; 
our manufacturing industries are rapidly taking first rank in 
the world ; agriculture of all types has taken on a new meaning 
and im2>ortance; and new enterprises calling for the applica- 
tions of scientific knowl'edge are being established almost every 
month. 

The high schools of South Carolina are notably weak in their 
science Avork. Almost all of them attempt some science work, 
but there are ver}' few well organized courses in science, and 
very little equipment has been provided. A still more serious 
weakness is the small number of teachers really prepared to 
teach any science. Many of the teachers attempting to teach 
science had little, if any, thorough preparation themselves in 
the high school, and took the minimum required science work in 
their college training. Hence, they have brought to their work 
a very inadequate preparation to teach any science study success- 
fully, A good percentage of the little science work that is 
attempted is pursued in neither a scientific manner nor in a 
scientific spirit, 

Dr, Snedden says, "These subjects (physics and chemistry) 
are distinctly not popular in the modem high school. They are 
taken in a perfunctory spirit, chiefly by pupils anxious to meet 
college-entrance requirements in them. The work has become 
exceedingly formal and unattractive. Many of us are convinced 
that our high school graduates who have had one or both sub- 
jects have had their outlook upon the world of physical phe- 
nomena modified only to a very slight extent thereby. It is not 
apparent that such students possess, as a consequence of their 
study, any extensive appreciation of what we mean by the scien- 
tific method. They are usually quite helpless in endeavoring 
to interpret applications of physical science to the practical 
affairs of life. They have dealt so long w^th applications of a 
very abstract character, through fonnal and technical work in 
the laboratory", that thte whole subject seems to have become 
more or less distasteful, and to be associated with problems that 



109 

are unsolved and, to a large extent, incapable of solution." 
Doubtless many of us are ready to admit the truth in these state- 
ments. Does the trouble lie in the nature and content of these 
subjects, or does it lie in the method of teaching them? 

Hundreds of high school pupils are growing into maturity 
unfamiliar with the most common phenomena about them. Many 
a student with but little taste or aptitude for any of tlw human- 
ities has in him a latent or dormant aptitude for reading Na- 
ture's book, if he only had the opportunity and the incentive 
to do so. No greater mistake could be made (and it is r'epeat- 
edly made) than to brand any student dull or inferior because 
he does not manifest a taste or an aptitude for the languages 
or for history. Two students, Avith equal mental capacity and 
acumen, may differ widely in their tastes, their individualities, 
and their dexterities. One might manifest a decided taste and 
cleverness for Shakespeare, and the other as decided tast« and 
cleverness for Victor Hugo. Would it be reasonable on this basis 
to adjudge either superior to the other in capacity or acumen? 

Among the ardent disciples of formal discipline is often to be 
observed a rather curious kind of reasoning. The claim is set 
up that discipline is more valuable than knowledge. Yet, many 
of those who hold to this view refuse to substitute the study of 
science for the study of the humanities. In other words, "It 
matters less what you study than how you study it,'' but in the 
end the what must be the humanities. The great majority of 
thinkers are rapidly getting away from this extreme and inde- 
fensible view. Educators know by careful tests and obsei'A^ation 
that there are some otherwise strong students whose mental 
make-up precludes any hope of their ever becoming proficient 
in the humanities, and that there are other's who can never be- 
come proficient in the natural sciences. 

In a little manual like this it would I^e rank presumption to 
undertake to give anything like specific treatment to the teach- 
ing of the various sciences. The best help that can be offered is 
to point the science teachers to a few helpful books on the teach- 
ing of the various high school sciences. I doubt if any one book 
at present will be found more helpful to the high school teacher 
of science than Twiss' Seienee Teachmg (Macmillan). It is a 
general guide, or manual, with many points of illustration. In 
the teaching of physiology, biology, and botany, Lloyd & Bige- 
low's The Teaching of Biology (Longmans) furnishes many val- 



no 

uable suggestions. Mann's The Teaching of Physics (Mac- 
millan) is another helpful book. In making these suggestions 
as to books, I have in mind the inexperienced beginner. The 
well-equipped teacher of experience already has his many books 
on his chosen subjeet or subjects. 

Suggestions. 

Without presumption I hope I may offer a few suggestions 
to the inexperienced beginner and to a certain type of teacher 
not wholly a beginner. These suggestions come from some 
rather strong convictions forced upon me in visiting high school 
classes in science work. 

1. Do not undertake to teach any science in which you have 
not acquired some proficiency yourself. How can you teach 
what you do not know? If you do not know a subject, admit 
it and refuse to compromise yourself. This suggestion is espe- 
cially applicable to the teaching of biology, recently introduced 
by the State Board of Education. 

2. In determining what science or sciences are to be taught in 
a given school, select what the school is best equipped to teach 
and what the teacher is best qualified to teach. 

3. The science subjects are usually not pursued long enough 
to give results at all commensurate with the results in language 
and history study prolonged through several years. Physiology 
less than a half-year, with daily recitations, is not worth under- 
taking. Biology, physical geography, physics, and chemistry 
should each be given not less than 36 Aveeks, with daily recita- 
tions. The physics and chemistry ought to have six periods a 
Aveek, making one double period for laboratory work. To run 
through any one of these subjects in six or seven months, as I 
have known, is of very little value to pupils. Such work has 
done much to bring science teaching into merited disrepute. 
The teacher who does this land of w^ork either does not know 
enough of the subject to appreciate it, or has a very inadequate 
notion of its value. In either case the pupils are getting little 
of value. 

4. The science teacher is expected to teach his subject, and not 
merely to go through the chapters of a textbook. Mere textbook 
science teaching ought not to be tolerated. Remember that in 
science teaching you are dealing with things, not with textbooks, 
except incidentally. 



Ill 

5. To the student of science there is nothing more vital to his 
success than the spirit with which he approaches the subject. The 
student will approach the subject in the same spirit with which 
his teacher approaches it. 

6. The teacher must be interested in investigation and experi- 
mentation. These must be fresh. Little inspiration will come 
from the same set of experiments made year after year. Do 
not make a set of experiments upon which to draw for all 
time. If you do, your pupils will come to regard you as a 
repeater. 

7. Your science teaching must begin with the experience of 
your pupils, and not with your experience. Get dow^n to their 
level, then work them up to yours. 

8. The aims of science study may be roughly stated thus : "To 
become acquainted with facts and phenomena ; to organize them 
through classification; to arrive at demonstrated conclusions." 

9. In science teaching there are a few things which pupils 
must, for a time, accept on faith, because their demonstration 
lies beyond the possibilities of the high school student. However, 
teachers must not conclude that they are teaching a thing which 
the pupils have learned merely from the textbook. When a 
pupil repeats from his book that certain plants are fertilized by 
the pollen from the flowers he does not know the statement to 
be true. He must discover the truth. The bare statement that 
bees and the wind pollenate plants by carrying the pollen from 
flower to flower is not science study. The pupil does not know 
this to be a fact. 

10. Twiss in his Science Teaching points out one of the most 
common and vicious types of science teaching — common to pres- 
ent-day textbooks and practiced by many teachers. The method 
is to state first the general law or principle, such as the kinetic 
theory of matter, or the w^ave theory of sound, then advance a 
few facts in its favor, and none against it, so as to convince the 
student of its truth by Tnaking it difficult for him to question 
or d£ny it. The teacher and the .textbook then give him exam- 
ples and practical applications or problems which he is expected 
to solve or explain by using the general law or principle. The 
author continues: "This exclusively deductive process effect- 
ively shuts up the mind, takes the sharp edge off curiosity, and 
inhibits inductive inquiry at the very beginning." 



112 

11. In recent yeai*s considerable discussion has gone on over 
the superiority of the problem method over the project method, 
and vice versa. No matter which you follow, there is an abund- 
ance of material close at" hand, Avhether in biology, physics, 
chemistry, or the other subjects. 

12. You must have some apparatus for teaching any of the 
sciences, but almost hundreds of experiments and projects may 
be made with very inexpensive equipment. There is almost no 
limit to what can be done by a resourceful teacher with a dozen 
glass bottles, as many rubber stopjiers, twenty-five feet of glass 
tubing, ten feet of rubber tubing, and some home-made appara- 
tus. 

13. For some of the more important and delicate experiments 
home-made apparatus is not sufficient. Some experiments are 
not worth anything, if not made exactly, and pupils ought not 
to get the impression that anything short of exactness will pass 
in science study. 

14. At present all kinds of apparatus are expensive. How- 
ever, any sensible school board is willing to purchase at least 
some necessary apparatus, if you demonstrate the worth of it by 
your use of it. A laboratory unused is not worth anything, and 
it is a reflection on the judgment and the resourcefulness of the 
teacher. 

15. In making experiments before your class, have everything 
ready before the class period. Do not waste time getting ready 
after the class comes in. Besides, do not let an experiment break 
down on you. A failure is depressing to your pupils. 

16. Do not pennit yourself to become discouraged or embar- 
rassed wlien you hear some specialist in science declare that 
science teaching has no place in the high school. Your task is 
to determine just what type of scientific teaching should be done 
with high school pupils. All of your pupils during their entire 
lives will be constantly dealing Avith Nature. Only a very small 
percentage of them will ever have the opportunity of studying 
imder specialists. 

17. The value and the place of generrd sHenee in the high 
school are yet unsettled questions. Many excellent teachers in- 
sist that it serves a double purpose — an introduction to science 
for ]>upils going through the high school and on to colleire. and 
some insight into the phenomena about them foi' the pupils who 



113 

will not go even through the high school. Other teachers decry 
the subject as "an omtiium-gath^i^um of scraps of all sorts of 
undigested and unconnected information.*' The whole question 
depends largely upon the manner of approach to the subject by 
the author of the textbook, and the manner in which the topics 
making up the text are harmonized. If the manner of approach 
is by induction, it is difficult to see why the subject can not be 
made j^rofitable as science study. If the topics, that is, the 
physics, the chemistry, the biology, and so on, are each treated 
rationally, and all put together harmoniously, it seems rather 
unwarranted language to call the entire subject scrappy. In 
even the most elaborate discussions in large volumes, one can 
not mark off ])hysics from chemistiy, or chemistry from biology, 
or biology from botany. 

AGEICULTURE. 

Twenty-five years ago "book farmers" and "book farming" 
were thoroughly ridiculed. About ten years later the farm 
demonstrator came on the scene, and gave a tremendous imjietus 
to improved methods in farming. Almost immediately there 
began an urgent, imj^atient, and feverish demand for teaching 
agriculture in the schools. Many people seemed to think that all 
that was necessary to revolutioniz-e farming was to pu.t textbooks 
in agriculture into the schools. Books were adopted for use in 
the elementary schools, and teachers innocent of anything re- 
sembling jn-eparation were put to teaching agriculture to young- 
sters barely able to read their textbooks. Failure was inevitable, 
and it came quicklv. 

The next step was to put the agriculture into the high school. 
The same type of textbook Avas put into the high school. Fail- 
ure Avas again inevitable. The third step was the establishment 
of distinctly agricultural high schools, sometimes called farni 
schools, and the like. In most of these schools two serious mis- 
takes were made: 1. College agriculture was \)\\t down into 
these secondary schools; 2. The course in agriculture was too 
nearly divorced from academic w^ork. High school students 
are no better fitted to deal with college agriculture than with col- 
lege chemistr3^ and any course in agriculture to be effective must 
have a strong academic background. No other people need a 
broader intellectual training, in addition to vocational training, 



114 

than do agricultural j^eople. The mere technique of planting, 
cultivating and harvesting crops is but part of the successful 
farmer's equipment. The successful farmer is "a business man 
on the farm." To quote the late Dr. Seaman Knapp, "Agricul- 
ture is not a science, but an art de})endent upon a great many 
sciences." 

After wasting a great deal of time, labor and money in un- 
profitable experimenting, we have begim to make some progress. 
We have begun to evolve a textbook suited to the high school, 
and we are beginning to understand that agricultural courses 
must not be divorced from academic studies. In the meantime 
the farm demonstrator has lost ground, because the average 
farmer has overtaken the average demonstrator. The success 
of agriculture in the high school seems to be predicated upon 
the following conditions: 

1. That the course be given in connection with a good acad- 
emic cun-iculum. Not more than one-fourth the daily recitation 
time should l^e given to agriculture. The time for practical 
work is additional. 

2. That agi'icultural courses must consist of both theory and 
practice. One without the other spells failure. Mere textbook 
agriculture is all but wasted time. 

3. That a course of less than two years is not suftlcient. The 
pupils fail to get out of the course what they should, if it is less 
than two years, and it is too expensive to employ a comj^etent 
teacher to teach a one-year course. 

4. That agriculture can not be taught by an untrained teacher 
any more than Latin or mathematics can be taught by an un- 
trained teacher. Because a teacher has been reared on a farm 
is no evidence that he can teach agriculture. He may be igno- 
rant of the theory. On the other hand, his Imowing nothing 
but the theory does not qualify him to teach the subject. Read- 
ing a few government bulletins does not fit a man to teach agri- 
culture. 

5. That very few women are fitted to teach agriculture. We 
do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles. Neither 
can we exi>ect women to teach agriculture, simply because they 
have a knowledge of some textbook on the subject. We should 
hardly expect a man to be fitted to teach domestic science, sim- 
ply because he had read a book or two and a few bulletins on 
the subject. 



115 

COURSE IN AGRICULTURE. 

The following four-year course was prepared by Prof. Verd 
Peterson of Clemson College for this manual. I take special 
pleasure in offering it to the consideration of the teachers of 
the State. 

FIRST YEAR: Subject material — Soils and crops. Home 
projects — Corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, or any other crop suited 
to the locality. 

SECOND YEAR: Subject iimtter — Animal husbandry. 
Home projects — Hogs, cows, poultry, or live stock work suited 
to the community. 

THIRD YEAR: Subject mattei'^ — Horticulture. Home pro- 
jects — Home orchard, garden, truck crops, suited to locality. 

FOURTH YEAR: Subject matter — Farm management and 
farm engineering. No home projects required, since the boys 
graduate from the school before the work could be completed. 

The work of the first and second years and of the third and 
fourth years may be so alternated that only tw^o years' work will 
be given in any one year. 

The material to be taught in the classroom should be selected 
to suit the preparation of the pupil for carrying out successfully 
the home project work selected by a majority of the pupils. 

The home project work should be supervised by the teacher 
of agriculture and graded as the other work of the school. 

The subject matter used in the different years can be selected 
from the different parts of the textboolvs already adopted. 

Under the Federal Law one double 4o-minute period each day 
is to be given to agriculture in each year of the course. 



A CONCLUDING WORD. 

The teacher of today has much for which to be thankful. The 
popular mind is everywhere favorable to the teacher's task; 
institutions of learning of high grade are within easy reach of 
those ambitious to teach ; normal schools and departments of ed- 
ucation in colleges and universities give specific training for 
teaching. Yet, none of these, nor all of them, can make a teacher 
out of a man or a w^oman unfitted by nature to become a teacher. 
Educational literature — handbooks, manuals, outlines, syllabi, 
magazines, and their like, are written and published in profu- 



116 

sion. Almost all of these are helpful, but they alone will not 
make a teacher. The real teacher is above all these. To be sure, 
from such agencies the alert and oj^^n-minded teacher derives 
suggestions, gathers inspiration, and catches new visions. The 
real teacher is the one who reads in order to get the suggestions, 
the inspiration, and the visions. 

During the past twelve years I have come into very intimate 
t'ontact with more than a thousand high school teachers. The 
great majority of these teachers are earnest men and women, 
with their hearts in their work, giving their best to the boys and 
girls under their charge. Almost without exception these teach- 
ers are open-minded and eager to catch any suggestion that com- 
mends itself to their judgment. To me it has been an inspiration 
to watch them in their work and in their growth. My only 
regret is my inability to give them more encouragement and 
inspiration than I did. Since the manuscript for this Manual 
was begun I have been called to another field of service. I shall 
miiss the periodic friendly greetings of these co-workers and 
much of the stimulus I got from my intercourse with them. 
However, I shall continue to have for them the same personal 
interest as in the past . W. H. HAND. 



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